The Master Plan
by Uric Igi Shelps
Summary: When Sam's parents get fed up with the recent ghost attacks, they set a plan into motion that could bring both the Ghost Zone and Earth to their knees. And where does Vlad fit into all of this? Mild DS later on.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I don't own anything except this plot. Danny Phantom belongs to Butch Hartman and company

**The Master Plan**

_Uric Igi Shelps_

**Prologue **

Sunday Afternoon

The screen faded to black and the lights flickered back on as the small crowd all got up, nearly in sync, talking amiably as they exited the air-conditioned theater. Danny Fenton, Sam Manson and Tucker Foley were amongst the modest moviegoers streaming into the late afternoon sun.

A brisk, early October wind swept past them as the three teens headed up the street in the direction of their homes. They talked in gory, bloody detail about the latest movie for a few blocks before they'd talked all they could about the movie.

They walked in silence for a few minutes before Sam suddenly grabbed Danny's arm. "I just remembered!"

"Sam?" Danny asked, concerned.

"You'll never believe what my parents are doing," Sam said as the three of them came to a stop on the sidewalk, Sam staring at Danny in apparent worry. She didn't wait for him to answer before she went on. "They're financing an invasion of the ghost zone!"

Danny raised an eyebrow, "So?" Sam rolled her eyes and let go of his arm.

"They're also financing a group of ghost-hunters to search for and destroy Danny Phantom," Danny blinked for a moment before he laughed.

"Come on, Sam," Danny said, starting to walk again, "Vlad already tried that and it was a total bust, I'm not worried,"

Sam caught up to him and glanced at him, "I think this is gonna be a little bit different, Danny,"

"Oh, come on Sam," Tucker said, "If Danny could handle fighting his evil future self, the most powerful ghost king ever, and everything else he's fought off — I think he can handle a bunch of ghost-hunting idiots,"

"I think he could handle it too!" Sam said defensively, "I just think that he should be a little more careful for awhile,"

Danny opened his mouth to say something, but he suddenly stopped walking and shivered, groaning as a cold breath escaped his mouth; his ghost sense. Sam and Tucker noticed as well, and also stopped walking. "No, you go on ahead," Danny said, "It's getting late and we've got school tomorrow — it's probably just the Box Ghost — I'll fly home after,"

"Are you sure, Danny?" Sam asked, shivering in the cold and pulling her jacket tighter around her.

Danny laughed, "You're cold, just go home — Tucker's already gone," Sam turned around to see Tucker disappearing around a corner.

"All right," Sam sighed, "See you tomorrow,"

Danny smiled before jumping into an alleyway. Sam watched as the predictable flash of light was followed by a black and grey blur and a brief wind. She watched him until he flew up and out of sight before turning towards home.

_Author's Note: I know this was incredibly short, but it's just a prologue, the rest of the chapters should be longer from here on out._


	2. Capture

**Disclaimer:**_ I don't own Danny Phantom or related to it, just this plot_

**The Master Plan**

_Uric Igi Shelps_

**Chapter 1:**

Capture

In most towns, people tend to keep their eyes on the ground, usually because there isn't anything of interest up in the sky. But in Amity Park, the supernatural, the paranormal, and any thing that is just plain unnatural goes on all the time.

So the people of Amity Park tend to look up and all around them, and on most nights this would help them, but not tonight. Curiosity is a dangerous thing, and that's something that Danny Fenton would most certainly agree with. But that is another story for another time.

On this cold night, high above the streets of Amity Park's business district, two figures flew, engaged in a well-rehearsed fight, between two beings who knew each other well. Flashes of green and red flared erratically, with unpredictable cries of triumph or pain.

Down below them, a crowd had gathered to watch the spectacle. The sidewalks were lined with people who were craning their necks, looking on in wonder at the two locked in combat. Above the crowds, late-night workers gawked from their office windows, choosing to be briefly entertained rather than doing their jobs.

A red ectoplasmic beam sailed just over the young ghost's shoulder, flying past him and blasting an ancient stone gargoyle's head off of its perch atop one of Amity Park's tallest buildings. The head sailed up and over the buildings spire and disappearing into the twilight. Spinning around, the ghost fired his own ectoplasmic blast back at his pursuer, and without pausing to see if it connected, became intangible and disappeared through the brick building.

Valerie Gray skidded her hover board to a stop inches from the building. Cursing in frustration, she spun around; resigned to finishing off her night shift at the Nasty Burger, where she should have been at the moment anyway. She hadn't descended more than a few feet when a pair of surprisingly strong arms hit her from behind and grabbed her around the waist.

Valerie looked up in time to see a small office building across the street engulf her field of vision. Throwing her arms up in front of her face, Valerie closed her eyes and waited for the painful death she expected.

Suddenly, the arms loosened their hold, and instead grabbed a hold of her arms and tossed her on top of the rooftop lazily. Hitting the ground hard, nevertheless, Valerie stumbled to her feet and spun around, waiting for her attacker to show himself, though she was already pretty certain who it was.

Sure enough, Danny Phantom floated above her, arms crossed and looking particularly cranky. "I am not your enemy, Valerie," he said in a dangerously calm voice. "I have never purposely done anything wrong, to you or to anyone!"

Clenching her teeth, Val tried to subtly withdraw a small weapon from a back pocket as she spoke, "What about when you held the mayor hostage, oh yeah," she mocked "How about how you ruined my social life!"

Danny rolled his eyes, thoroughly annoyed with what was fast becoming a chronic problem, namely; Valerie Gray and her almost "Jack Fenton-like" obsession with ghosts. "Oh, please — I'm a ghost — how much of a social life do you think I have!"

"Probably no life to speak of," Valerie answered succinctly.

Danny, surprised at her frank response stuttered, "Well — yeah —"

Valerie finally drew her ecto-ray and fired at the confused and unprepared ghost. The blast connected, sending Danny tumbling end over end, up and over the side of the building and across the street, where he slammed into already smashed gargoyle. Shaking his head to regain focus, Danny looked up in time to see Valerie flying up to meet him, this time with her cannon shouldered and charging.

Danny managed to become intangible right before the blast would have hit him. Phasing right through him, the blast slammed the already damaged building, jarring loose the headless gargoyle and an innumerable amount of loose bricks, which all tumbled over the side, directly above the dozen or so people watching the fight from below.

It took a moment for Danny to realize what had happened, but as soon as he did he sprung from his little nook in the corner of the damaged building and dove towards the streets below, leaving a puzzled Valerie above him.

Flying flat out as fast as he could, it wasn't long before he could hear the screams of the frantic people below him, running away and taking cover. A moment later he passed the falling debris, all the while conscience of the fast approaching asphalt. Rolling onto his back, but still flying down headfirst, he looked up at the debris and closed his eyes in concentration.

Gathering strength, he flung out both arms and gritted his teeth while simultaneously doing a mid-air back flip and righting himself. Hovering there, with his arms still held out and continuing to concentrate, Danny opened his eyes and looked up.

Just above him, and only ten feet above the ground, was a semi-transparent ceiling, on which sat the large pile of debris, among it, the now nearly completely demolished stone gargoyle.

Below him, a dozen or so people still stood, looking at Danny with an odd mixture of curiosity, gratitude, and even a little awe. With his energy quickly draining, Danny looked at them in annoyance. "Get out of here!" He yelled through his clenched teeth, desperately holding his mental grip on the barrier.

The remaining people didn't need to be told twice, and quickly scrambled out of the way and down the road to safety. Once he was sure that everyone was safely out of harms way, Danny let the shield drop, and he floated down to the ground, where he fell to his knees and tried to catch his breath.

Panting heavily, he didn't notice Valerie fly down and pause, hovering just above him. She hesitated for just a moment, wondering if she should take advantage of this moment of obvious weakness. _The ghost-kid did just save all those people_, one part of her mind said rationallyl, _maybe he's not so bad._

But another, stronger voice in her head screamed at her that it was just a ploy, an excuse for him to escape, and that he'd only done it because he was to scared of her to actually fight.

After another moment's hesitation, Valerie made up her mind and fired a red tinted net at the ghost boy, who never even knew she was there.

The net caught Danny completely by surprise, and he looked up at a very smug looking Valerie. "Yes!" She screamed in triumph, "I've finally got you ghost-kid, you'll never ruin someone else's life again!"

Annoyed, and still panting, Danny went intangible and tried to phase through the netting. As soon as his intangible form touched the side of the netting, the whole net lit up in bright red, and a horrible jolting went through Danny's body.

Losing his focus, Danny became solid once more as he screamed in pain. A moment later, the jolting stopped, and Danny slumped to the ground, groaning in pain and barely conscious enough to hold onto his ghost form, knowing that if he let himself go, he'd be exposing his secret to the world.

Above him, Valerie was laughing cruelly as she secured the net to her hover board and took off, laughing all the while, as Danny Phantom struggled to hold on to consciousness, and a ghost by the name of Vlad Plasmius watched from above, with a smile.

_Author's Note: I know it's still short, only like 3 pages in Microsoft Word, but the next chapter is something like 9, which I think is a major improvement_


	3. Defeated

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing

**The Master Plan**

_Uric Igi Shelps_

**Chapter 2**

Defeated

Monday Morning

Samantha Manson pulled her black sweatshirt tighter around her as the blistering morning wind swept by. Glancing at her watch for what had to be the tenth time already, Sam rolled her eyes and looked down the road again. If Danny and Tucker didn't show up soon, they'd all end up being late for school.

Moments later, a familiar face in a green beret turned the nearest corner. Tucker, as normal, had his head bent over and his eyes riveted to the screen of his PDA. Somehow, by a sixth sense of sorts, and more likely years of practice, Tucker was able to perfectly maneuver the crowds without glancing up once. Unfortunately, he didn't sense Sam stretching out her leg in his path, and he fell face first into the sidewalk.

Sam couldn't help but laugh at his position, PDA safely over his head, and glasses cracked on his face. Evidently, Tucker valued his PDA over his face. Groaning, Tucker sat up, tossing the remains of his shattered glasses into a nearby trashcan. "What was that for?" He asked, blinking as he pulled out a spare set of glasses.

Sam, who was just now regaining control of her laughter, smiled and shook her head. "You should watch where you're going next time," she chastised.

"Hey!" Tucker said, sitting up, his latest embarrassment already forgotten, "Where's Danny?"

Sam's smile faded, "I was hoping he'd be with you,"

Tucker shook his head, "I haven't see him since the movie yesterday," He said, thinking. Then, looking around, he lowered his voice, "Ghosts?" Sam looked to be thinking along the same lines as she nodded. "If it is ghosts, then I'm sure Danny can handle it — besides — " he looked at his watch, " — we've only got two minutes to get to school," he took off running down the sidewalk, leaving Sam standing at the corner.

With one last, desperate look in the Fenton's general direction, Sam sighed and started off to school. "I sure hope you're right, Tucker,"

* * *

Danny had long ago given up on struggling, inside of what he now knew to be a ghost-proof cage. He had no idea what time it was, but he could see that the sun was up, which meant that school had to be starting soon. Which meant that he'd been awake for nearly 24 hours, and on top of saving all of those people the night before, he was utterly exhausted.

He'd been forced to literally hold his eyes open all night long, afraid that if he fell asleep, he'd lose his hold on his ghost form and become Danny Fenton once more, effectively revealing his secret to one of the last people he wanted to know.

It had proved to be a good idea, because Valerie had come down to where he was being held numerous times over the course of the night, taunting and mocking him relentlessly. She hadn't yet seemed to notice his apparent lack of energy, but Danny knew it would only be a matter of time before she did, unless he completely passed out first, of course.

He had pieced together that he was most likely being held in the basement of Valerie's new house, one that her and her father had just moved into recently. They'd managed it with help from Danny, Phantom, not Fenton.

By unmasking Valerie in front of her father, Danny had provided Mr. Gray a lot of questions for the 14-year-old. One of the questions that had cropped up was how she had managed to procure her arsenal of high-tech guns and equipment. Evidently, she had named names, and Mr. Gray contacted the mysterious supplier.

Apparently, the two had reached some sort of a deal. The details weren't clear to Danny, but the house was obviously part of the agreement, as well as a steady job for Mr. Gray. The fact that buying a house and securing a job, not to mention obtaining a full arsenal of ghost hunting equipment, all but proved to Danny that Plasmius was the weapons supplier. Add to that his familiarity with Valerie, and Danny was sure it was Vlad, he just couldn't figure out why.

Apparently her father had agreed to keep her secret for her, and Danny had no way of knowing if her ghost hunting was being affected or not. Evidently, he mused, not.

Danny had learned all of this by accident, he'd been searching for the Box Ghost invisibly, when he'd come across Valerie and her father talking about it when he picked her up from school one day. He hadn't gotten a name though.

Then there was his relationship with Valerie. Both of them. On the one hand, Valerie hated Danny Phantom much more than she ever had before, despite the fact that he'd inadvertently helped her out. But far more…disturbing to Danny, was the sudden change in attitude that Valerie had for Danny Fenton. She seemed to be around him constantly at school, and had even expressed interest in hanging out with him after school. Which was something that Danny obviously couldn't have.

Besides his certain secrets, Tucker, and especially Sam, didn't seem to like Val very much. And honestly, with the way she used to treat all of them, and the way she still treated Danny Phantom, he couldn't blame them.

The sound of the door opening jarred Danny from his thoughts, and he forced himself to look somewhat alert. Down the wooden staircase came Valerie, dressed in her casual school clothes, and accompanied by a somewhat surprised looking Mr. Gray. "You actually caught the ghost-kid?" He asked, staring at Valerie with a look of interest, which quickly turned to confusion. "Why? He saved the entire city!"

Danny, who had been too busy trying to keep his eyes open and had been only half listening, perked up when he heard the surprising support.

Valerie rolled her eyes, apparently prepared for such criticism. "He's a ghost, dad," she said, as if that explained everything, "I wouldn't be surprised if he rigged the whole attack just to get the idiots in this town to trust him!"

Mr. Gray arched one eyebrow and crossed his arms over his chest. "Are you calling me an idiot?"

Valerie looked surprised for a moment, before she realized what she'd said and she blushed slightly. "No, daddy," she said respectfully, examining her shoes laces.

Danny snorted at the normalcy of the situation, but looked away when Valerie glared at him.

"You can keep him until I speak with the Fenton's," Mr. Gray went on, and Danny looked up, suddenly alarmed. "Once I have their opinion, we'll go from there," he kissed her on the forehead quickly, "Now get off to school, your grades are already slipping with this ghost-hunting you've been up to, and if you don't make the honor roll I'm taking all of your weapons,"

Valerie rolled her eyes again, "Yes, daddy," she said, defeated, and together they trudged back up the stairs. He heard the door close and some muffled footsteps from above before another slamming door told him that they were gone.

He immediately let the façade fall, relaxing and leaning back against the ghost and human proof bars. Knowing they wouldn't be back for a while, Danny leaned his head back and closed his eyes, hoping to just relax for a few minutes before trying to figure a way out.

* * *

"Has anyone seen Mr. Fenton?" Mr. Lancer asked as first period started, looking around the room as he took attendance. Most of the students looked as if they didn't even know who Danny was, "Ah, well," the middle-aged teacher sighed, "I'm sure he's on his way, it's not as if he values punctuality,"

A few students laughed, though most weren't paying enough attention.

Sighing, she tuned out Lancer's latest lesson and thought about what Danny could possibly be fighting that would prevent him from calling her or Tucker. Looking across the room, Sam unintentionally caught the eye of Valerie, who was similarly staring off into space, not to mention decidedly ignoring Tucker's unwavering stare.

Sam narrowed her eyes and looked away. Ever since Pariah Dark's defeat, and in Valerie's eyes, Sam's "confession" of her feelings for Danny, her and Val hadn't spoken. Sam almost felt like some sort of silent contest had been declared. Not that she'd be participating in anything like that, she didn't like Danny that way…

A few moments later, more out of boredom than anything else, Sam looked back at Valerie, who was now staring off into space. Judging by the look on her face, Sam would have to say that something very wonderful had happened to the young ghost hunter.

Before she had time to dwell on possible reasons for her demeanor, the bell rang, dismissing them from class. Sighing, Sam got up and waited for Tucker to put his things away, before they both left class.

On their way to their next class, one of the people Sam wanted to see the least sidled up behind them. "Where's Danny?" Valerie asked, looking somewhat concerned.

"We don't know," Tucker said honestly, "He wasn't sick yesterday and he didn't mention anything about missing school,"

"Oh," Val said, obviously uncomfortable, but just as clearly still in her good mood, "Well if you see him, tell him I said hi," she walked away.

Tucker looked at Sam, who was determinedly looking anywhere but at Val's disappearing form. "What's she so happy about?"

* * *

"Wake up Daniel,"

Danny jolted awake, looking around the room frantically, and finding Vlad Plasmius floating in front of him, his arms crossed over his chest. Blinking, Danny saw through one of the basement windows that the sun was now much higher in the sky than the last time he saw it, meaning he'd fallen asleep.

Realizing that he was back to being Danny Fenton, he quickly changed into Phantom and jumped up into a fighting stance, noticing with some surprise that the ghost cage around him was turned off, and he phased through it.

Plasmius rolled his eyes. "Oh please," he scoffed, "You couldn't beat me with a full night's sleep and a full stomach, there is no way that you could so much as look me in the eye without an hour of sleep,"

Danny hesitated, knowing, furiously, that the older man was right; he wasn't exactly in great shape for a fight. He put his arms back at his sides and relaxed slightly. "What do you want, _Plasmius_?" He said the name with as much contempt as he could muster.

"There's a good boy," Vlad said, touching down and allowing himself to become Vlad Masters once again. Danny followed suit, hoping to keep as much energy as he possibly could. Danny tensed as the older man reached one arm inside his jacket and withdrew a deli sandwich, tossing it into Danny's hands.

"I dare say that the young Miss. Gray won't be feeding you anytime soon," he explained. Danny eyed the sandwich wearily, not so quick to accept a sandwich from his arch nemesis. "Eat it or not, it's of no concern to me, though you may actually be a match for me if you were to become a full-ghost,"

He looked thoughtful for a moment, but then shrugged and resumed his sour countenance. "Either way, you'll find that where you're going, the menu will be much less appetizing than that sandwich,"

Danny raised an eyebrow, "And where, exactly, do you think I'm going?" He asked tiredly, knowing that Vlad could literally force him to do anything he wanted at the moment.

"With me, of course," Vlad laughed. He smiled, and suddenly two black rings appeared around the older man, traveling the length of him and turning the charming billionaire into Danny's most hated rival.

Before Danny could react, Plasmius blasted him backwards and into the wall. Exhausted and grunting in pain, Danny quickly changed into his alter ego and stood, ready to fight.

Vlad just smiled, and before Danny knew what was happening he suddenly felt a horrible pain in his right arm. Looking down, he saw the hoagie in his hand alive with red energy that was quickly spreading up his arm.

He tried to drop it, but he couldn't move his hand or his arm. The pain soon spread up his shoulder and it wasn't long before he fell to the ground, writhing in an odd sort of numbing pain.

In his last moments of consciousness, he heard Vlad laughing, "It would have been so much more entertaining if you'd just eaten it,"

A bright flash briefly illuminated Plasmius' laughing face, and then all Danny knew was darkness.

* * *

Tucker and Sam were walking through the crowded halls of Casper High, headed towards their next class in silence. From behind him, someone shoved Tucker aside as they hurried past without looking back. "Hey!" Tucker protested, before he looked up and saw that it was Paulina who'd pushed by him. "Oh, sorry for getting in your way, Paulina!" Tucker shouted after her, choosing to ignore the fact that she didn't acknowledge him whatsoever.

Sam rolled her eyes, "What is she in such a hurry for?"

"Who cares?" Tucker said, hurrying ahead to catch up with her as Sam reluctantly followed, "Look at her run!"

"Valerie!" Paulina said, coming up next to the other girl and slowing, "Did you hear?"

Sam almost laughed as she could practically see Valerie rolling her eyes, "Hear about what?" Valerie asked, looking at the Hispanic girl with annoyance.

"About the ghost-boy!" Paulina said, with what sounded like concern. Sam and Tucker looked at each other in alarm and soon caught up to the more popular girls ahead of them.

"Oh," Valerie said slowly, "What happened to him?" she asked innocently.

"That horrible ghost-hunting monster kidnapped him after he saved me and some other losers last night," Paulina said arrogantly, "He didn't have a chance!"

"What happened to the ghost-boy?" She asked, hoping to sound nonchalant. Both Valerie and Paulina turned to her, surprised. Valerie opened her mouth to answer, but Paulina beat her to it.

"What do you care about the ghost-boy?" Paulina asked scathingly, "He never saved _your_ life," both Valerie and Sam rolled their eyes and tried to check their tempers.

"I'd bet that the ghost-boy probably only saved you because he thought your pathetic screaming was some little kid!"

"He still —"

"Shut it!" Valerie interrupted, eyes flashing in anger. "First of all, Sam, what happened to the ghost-boy is really none of your — or Tucker's — business," she looked at them both coldly, "and secondly," shifting her gaze to Paulina, "no matter how many people are willing to forget how he held the mayor hostage and stole thousands of dollars, I won't, he's evil, and I hope that ghost-hunter destroys him!" She stalked off down the now nearly empty hallways.

Paulina stared at Sam, as if trying to read the goth girl, "He's mine, you know," she stated, as if daring Sam to challenge that fact.

Sam opened her mouth, but thought better of it a moment later and closed her eyes. "He's a ghost, how can you have a crush on a ghost?"

"Hypocrite," Tucker mumbled from beside her. She shot a glare at him, and his grin disappeared.

Paulina stalked off without a word, just as the late bell rang, signaling that Tucker and Sam were late. "What do you think happened to Danny?" Tucker asked her once Paulina was out of earshot.

"I don't know," Sam said after a moment, "But we're gonna find out,"

* * *

Danny woke up in what he immediately recognized as the same specter-deflector that Vlad had imprisoned him in on their first meeting in Wisconsin. He didn't appear to be in Vlad's lab though, as everything in sight seemed to be made of wood. It also looked to be fairly unused, as dust covered the many shotty looking tables and chairs, as well as heavily coating the floor. There were no footprints in the dust, but then, his captor was a ghost.

Knowing that it would be pointless to even try to go ghost, Danny sighed and closed his eyes again, deciding to rest while he could. Moments after he'd woken up, he heard Plasmius' booming voice approaching. "So in exchange for Daniel, your men will — why hello Daniel!" Plasmius said, apparently well aware that Danny was feigning sleep.

Danny opened his eyes and saw Plasmius accompanied by, to Danny's annoyance, Walker and half a dozen of his men. Vlad stuck out one finger and fired a small ectoblast, which struck a button on the outside of the box, turning it off and releasing Danny.

Climbing to his feet, Danny went ghost and hovered there, waiting for Walker or Vlad to make the first move. "Not going to run, Daniel?"

Danny narrowed his eyes, "When have I ever run, Plasmius?"

Vlad smiled, "Let's see if we can't get you to run," By some unspoken signal, Vlad, Walker, and all the guards fired blasts at him all at once. Unprepared, Danny was blasted back against the wall, shaking the structure and raining dust on them all. Danny fought back, firing two ectoblasts out of both hands.

One of Walkers more inept guards was struck in the face with and was sent through a wall, while Plasmius stuck out one hand and absorbed the other blast before he hurled it back at Danny, who just barely ducked.

"Darn it!" Danny said, frustrated. He fired again, with similar results, but this time Plasmius conjured a simple shield to deflect the shot, and the rebound struck Danny before he could get out of the way.

He was blasted back against the wall again and choking through the dust, could just make out Walker's guards moving in to corner him. Defeated, Danny decided to live to fight another day, and he went intangible as quickly as possible, spun around and leapt through the wall — SLAM!

Disoriented, Danny fell back to the ground. The other's laughter brought him back to reality, and Danny knew he had lost. He was given the chance to fight his way out, and so far he'd been embarrassed.

But there was one thing he was sure Vlad didn't know about. He spun around and opened his mouth and tried his Ghostly-Wail.

Nothing happened. Mentally cursing, Danny assumed that he didn't have the energy needed to use his best attack.

Plan B, then, Danny thought, as he closed his eyes and his hands ignited in green ectoplasm. He fired double blasts again, but didn't see the magenta dome that had formed around him. Both blasts reflected off the dome and struck him, then bounced off and hit the barrier again, before they came back and hit him again.

The blasts kept rebounding and reflecting until all the energy became heat and they fizzled out, leaving Danny Fenton on hands and knees, wheezing.

"Very good, Daniel," Plasmius said, "but you've lost more than just your freedom, I'm afraid," Danny looked up as one of Walker's guards shackled his arms together.

"What do you mean?"

"I'm sorry to have to tell you that your friends — I believe their names were Samantha and Tucker — died last night," Plasmius didn't sound sorry at all, and Danny scoffed.

"You killed them?" He said, trying to keep his voice nonchalant. "I don't believe it,"

"You don't?" Plasmius mused, floating closer to Danny slowly. "I can show you if you like,"

"Show me?" Vlad was now inches from Danny, who was backed up against the wall. Vlad held up one finger and put it to Danny's forehead before the younger ghost could protest. With a flash, Danny's mind was flooded with images.

Danny saw the scene play out as if it were a movie. He was standing on cold concrete, and the wind was violent in the night sky, and Danny had the sense that they were very high up, on some sort of roof In front of him, Tucker and Sam lay, ten feet apart near the edge of the building, while Plasmius faced them on the other side, looking like evil incarnate.

"Goodbye," Plasmius said, charging a blast of red energy in his hand and aiming it at Tucker. "Any last words, boy?"

_Tucker, who had been all fours, struggled to his feet and wiped his face. His glasses were gone, presumed shattered, his cloths torn, and his face bruised and bloody. "Yes," Tucker said, "I want you to tell Danny that I hate him, and that I'll see him in —" Vlad blasted Tucker off the rooftop before he got any further, as Sam screamed and dashed to the building's side and looked over._

_Moments later, she spun around; tears flowing freely down her face as she faced Vlad defiantly. Vlad smiled cruelly, "Do you have a message to Daniel, young lady?" _

_Sam smiled coldly, the smile of someone who had lost all hope. "Tell him," she paused, "tell him that I hope he has a good time with Valerie now that he's killed his best friends,"_

_Vlad smiled, "I shall relay the message," With that, he blasted Sam off the edge before she could even blink, and her scream was soon drowned out by the wind._

The vision ended, and Danny lunged at the ghost in front of him, unaware of the tears flowing down his face and the shackles on his hands. Vlad simply became intangible, and Danny fell flat on his face.

"Pick him up," Walker said to the guards, "And bring him to the Fenton Portal, it's time he went home,"

Danny didn't protest as he was gruffly thrown on his feet by two guards and hoisted into the air before being flown through the ceiling. Walker looked at Vlad, "Did you really kill his friends?"

"Of course not," Vlad scoffed as he became invisible, "But the best way to beat Daniel is to give him no hope of rescue, no hope of escape, and no reason to live," Vlad said. "Why do you think I gave him an opportunity to escape? If he feels like he lost his one chance to get away, he won't try it again," his bodiless voice sounded farther away, and it took Walker a second to realize that the invisible ghost was gone, before he too flew away.


	4. Convoy

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing

**The Master Plan**

_Uric Igi Shelps_

**Chapter 4**

Convoy

"Where are we going, Sam?" Tucker asked for what had to be the tenth time since they'd left school, which had been nearly a half-hour ago, and Sam still had yet to let Tucker know what she was planning.

"We're going to Valerie's," Sam said shortly, quickening her pace down the nearly empty sidewalk.

"Are you planning on breaking in?" Tucker asked incredulously, adjusting his heavy bag and hurrying to keep up. "No one's gonna be home," he reminded her.

Sam rolled her eyes and looked up at the bright, blue sky as they walked. Suddenly, she stopped, causing Tucker, whose nose had been buried in his PDA to collide with her, knocking them both down. "Tucker!" Sam said, annoyed.

"Ow," Tucker said, rubbing his rear and picking up his PDA. "That's the second time you knocked me down today—what did I do to you?" He asked, as he held out a hand to pull her up.

Sam didn't take his hand though; she was still staring up over Tucker's shoulder and into the sky. Tucker turned around, and to his shock, found a group of ghosts floating high above the street.

Most of the half dozen or so ghosts were instantly recognizable as Walker's guards, then, predictably, there was Walker himself, floating along behind them. But the thing that had made Sam stand there and stare was the small ghost being restrained by two of Walker's guards.

Not that Danny seemed to need restraining, his head was hung and his shoulders were slouched. Neither Sam nor Tucker could see his face, but they both got the sense that Danny had given up.

Snapping out of her trance, Sam started to shout, "Da—" she never got it finished, as Tucker inexplicably put a hand over her mouth.

"Don't!" He hissed, "We can't do anything to help him if we're captured too," Sam pulled his hand from her mouth and stared at him.

"We can help him now!" She swung her bag around in front of her and dug through it for a moment before she pulled out a Fenton-ghost ray.

Tucker looked shocked, "Where'd you get that?" He asked incredulously.

"Danny gave it to me after the thing with Clockwork," Sam said as she turned off the safety and took careful aim. "Darn it!" She said a moment later, lowering the gun, "They're too far away — I might hit Danny,"

"Where do you think they're going?" Tucker asked, squinting as the ghostly procession moved into the distance. "Fentonworks?"

"We may as well head there," Sam agreed, "If Danny's not there, then we can talk to Jazz, she could probably help us,"

Sam put the ecto-gun back in her bag and took off in the direction of Danny's house, with Tucker following closely..

Although they didn't know it, both were thinking the same thing, what could have happened to make Danny so depressed?

* * *

Valerie walked into the still house, immediately throwing her bag onto the kitchen table and heading downstairs to her makeshift prison. She wanted to sprint down the stairs; desperate to make sure that Phantom was still locked in his cage, but she forced herself to slow to a casual stroll, appearing calm.

Nevertheless, she jumped the last two steps and stopped in her tracks, furious to see the cage empty, and Phantom gone. Before she could wonder how the heck he'd escapec, a voice spoke from behind her, "Calm down, Valerie," Spinning, Valerie came face to face with a ghost she knew to be one of Phantom's allies.

"You!" Valerie said, backing away from the hulking ghost slowly.

"Yes, me — you can call me Plasmius," the ghost said, bowing pompously. Valerie scowled.

"It doesn't matter what you're called," she said, reaching behind her, "You're still just…a…ghost…" Valerie trailed off as she realized something, she felt, rather than saw Plasmius roll his eyes and sigh loudly in annoyance.

"Oh please, Miss. Gray," he said in his condescending tone, "You and I both know that you're ghost hunting gear is upstairs on your kitchen table,"

With no other option, Valerie spun around to face the ghost, but found him gone, or more likely, invisible. With nothing else to do, she spun back towards the stairs and sprinted up them, knowing in the back of her mind that Plasmius would never let her get to her gear in time.

She slammed her shoulder into the door and stumbled through, in her haste, she slipped on the linoleum and fell on her face. Stumbling to her feet, she resumed sprinting to the bag, and was just in sight of the table when a hand shot up from underneath her and gripped her by the neck. Her feet soon left the ground and she was brought to look at the ghost in the eyes.

"You've served your purpose," he said mysteriously, "and you're coming with me,"

* * *

Sam and Tucker made it to Fentonworks just as Jazz made it home from school. She parked the car in the street and got out a moment later. Spotting Sam and Tucker, she looked behind them suspiciously. "Where's Danny?" She asked, moving up the front stoop and unlocking the door. "I haven't seen him since he went to the movies yesterday,"

Sam and Tucker glanced at each other nervously, "We think he's inside," Tucker said, quickly, pushing past Jazz and heading downstairs, with Sam and a bewildered Jazz following.

Tucker traipsed down the stairs and into the basement lab, looking at the still sealed portal and the untouched equipment. "Darn," he said, casting an eye at the empty room before him as Sam and Jazz followed.

"Where are your parents?" Sam asked, noticing that Mr. and Mrs. Fenton weren't in the lab or the kitchen, which were really the only places she'd ever seen them.

"They went to a weekend long ghost-hunting convention," Jazz said distractedly, still looking suspicious, "they should be back pretty soon," she looked at her watch, then shook her head to clear her thoughts, "Now where is Danny?"

"Well," Tucker started, "We're not totally sure…" he trailed off as Sam stepped in.

"Did he ever come home last night?"

Jazz hesitated before she shook her head, "I'm…not sure?" She smiled weakly.

"You're not sure?" Sam asked.

"Well — I figured he was gonna be out late and I wanted to stay up but I fell asleep reading," she said very quickly, then she took a breath and went on, "then I woke up late today and I didn't see him so I thought he'd already gone…"

"Well we saw him this afternoon," Sam said, trying to assuage the older girl's fears, "But he was being held by Walker," she said quietly, in a rush.

Jazz looked puzzled. She pulled out her laptop and clicked around for a minute before she mumbled something under her breath and looked up at them. "Walker the ghost warden?" She asked, finding what she was looking for.

"That's him," Tucker said, smiling at Sam slightly. "He's had it out for Danny ever since they met,"

"Why —" before any of them had time to react, two of Walker's guards swooped into the lab. Without pausing, they grabbed hold of both Sam and Tucker, covered their mouths and disappeared, invisible, Jazz hoped.

"Tucker! Sam!" Jazz yelled, spotting the Fenton Bazooka and lunging for it. She grabbed it and spun, just as three more guards swooped in, pointing their glowing nightsticks at Jazz.

Jazz beat them to the trigger, and fired two quick shots. One blast connected, and the unfortunate ghost was sucked into himself, disappearing with an audible pop to the ghost-zone.

The other shot missed a guard's head by a hair, and the ghost, thinking he was clear, was quickly sucked into the portal. "Yes!" Jazz yelled, momentarily forgetting about the third ghost in her happiness.

A moment later, the bazooka was blasted from her hand and sent skidding across the lab, where it slid into the suddenly open portal and disappeared. Jazz spun around and shrunk away from the advancing ghost, who smiled wickedly as he shot a blast of ecto-goo into her mouth, gagging her. He reached to her, grabbed her shoulder

Knowing what was coming next, Jazz sighed as she felt her body become invisible.

* * *

Danny wasn't paying attention to anything anymore. He was hardly aware of the glowing green chains on his wrists, and he was completely oblivious to the innumerable ghosts flying around him. He didn't notice that Vlad was nowhere to be seen, and took no interest in Walker's radio conversations.

He did notice when the ghosts on either side of him dragged him down, as the whole ghastly procession began to descend. Not surprised to find himself floating through the basement of his own house, Danny allowed himself to drift along towards the Fenton Portal, with no way of knowing that Tucker, Sam and Jazz were being held invisible across the room.

He sighed as they approached the portal. Taking one last look at his basement, he didn't protest as he was roughly shoved across the threshold. One thought managed to penetrate the fog that was his confused mind, _I'll never see any of them again, _with that, he disappeared into the green of Ghost-Zone.

* * *

Sam wasn't aware of the tears flowing down her face as Danny was brought through the lab. She got the same sense of hopelessness that she had felt when she'd seen him from the street, but this time she was close enough to see more, and what she saw terrified her. She'd never seen anyone so dead looking.

He was almost unrecognizable, his normally pale skin was tainted a sickly blue, his eyes were a dull, lifeless green, unlike their normal brilliant and glowing emerald. What was worse was his demeanor. He looked utterly unconcerned with his current predicament, and didn't struggle at all as he was dragged along, he merely glanced back at his basement at the last second, wearing an expression of utter indiffernce.

Once he'd disappeared through the portal, with Walker following, Sam felt the slight tingle in her skin that she had come to associate with changing from invisible to visible. Tucker and Jazz soon phased into sight, and Sam saw the same emotions that she felt playing across Jazz's face. Tucker looked upset as well, but more than upset, he looked angry.

As if on cue, all three ghosts released their charges and shoved them roughly into the corner. Unarmed, and cornered, the three teens looked at each other hopelessly as they watched the armed ghosts raise their nightsticks.

The tips had just started to glow their terrifying green, when three red ectoblasts shot from across the room and hit the near executioners. The ghosts, conveniently enough, shot across the room and into the still open portal, where they disappeared.

Sam, Jazz and Tucker looked at their rescuers just in time to see two duplicates of Vlad Plasmius dissolve back into the center one. "Hello, children," he said calmly, floating back to the ground as two jet black rings appeared at his midsection and moved away from each other, turning him back into Vlad Masters.

No one saw the third, invisible duplicate fly into the portal with an unconscious Valerie Gray held tight.

* * *

_A/N: The updates will probably be something like once a week from now on. Between work and school I can really only write on the weekends. _

_Sorry for the lack of length..._


	5. Imprisoned

Disclaimer: I own nothing

_A/N: This story takes place after "The Fright Before Christmas" and "Secret Weapons" but before "Flirting with Disaster" and I think the next one is "Micro-Management", so anything from those two hasn't happened yet_ _Got it, good. _

**The Master Plan**

_Uric Igi Shelps_

**Chapter 5**

Imprisoned

Danny didn't protest as Walker's guards roughly threw him into a cell, or shortly thereafter when the two guards backed out and Walker stepped in, eyeing Danny with an obvious glint in his eye. Victory. 

"Welcome home, ghost-kid," Walker said, looking at Danny and taking pleasure in the younger ghost's apparent defeat. He strolled further into the cell, the metal door clanging behind him ominously. "Do you like your cell?" He inquired, floating closer still to Danny. Danny paid him no mind and continued to stare at the ground. "It's reinforced with Plasmius' human and ghost shield," he went on as if Danny had answered, "So your alter-ego is stuck in here as well,"

When Danny just continued his staring Walker's smile widened as he produced a pair of metallic, high-tech looking gloves. "He also made some ghost-gauntlets, one's that'll work on your human side,"

Walker put the gloves on and flexed his fingers as his insane grin spread, as he approached the shackled ghost-boy, Danny merely glanced up, his dull, lifeless eyes showing no fear, concern or even any acknowledgment for what was about to happen to him.

Walker raised his gloved fist, and after a moment's hesitation, brought it down—

* * *

"What are _you _doing here?" Jazz yelled at the half-ghost, even as she wiped the tears from her face with her sleeve.

Vlad merely smiled and raised an eyebrow. "Nice to see you as well, Jasmine," he said smugly as he examined his knuckles, "You're welcome, by the way,"

"We don't need help from _you_," Sam said, glaring daggers at the older man. Vlad continued his arrogant smiling as he put his hands in his pockets and strolled around the lab, looking as if he was just out for a walk.

"I beg to differ, young lady," Vlad said, "You'll need all the help you can get if you want to get Daniel out of Walker's prison,"

"We've done it before," Tucker said, "We can do it again!" Vlad shook his head and laughed humorlessly.

"Not likely," he said, "Not with the shield that Walker stole from my lab," his voice becoming noticeably colder as he spoke, and his eyes narrowing. Moments later, however, the demeanor had vanished. "You _will_ need my help,"

Sam raised an eyebrow and put her hands on her hips, trying to take out her pent up frustrations with Valerie, Walker, and even Danny out on Vlad. "If it's a ghost and human shield — how could you get in?" Vlad held up a small remote control. "With this," he said, "but you'd need to be a ghost to get that close — and you can forget about that nifty little exploring vehicle you've got — he's ready for that," he added when Tucker had been about to interrupt.

There was an uncomfortable silence for a moment, before Jazz spoke up, "None of us are ghosts, Plasmius," she said, forgoing the use of his first name and any respect she may have had for him before he'd been exposed.

Vlad tucked the control into his jacket pocket and walked over to one of the cabinets along the far wall, opening one above his head and pulling out an empty glass beaker — how he knew exactly where the beakers were was something Jazz didn't want to think about.

Vlad continued to ignore them and instead fiddled with beakers and test tubes. Sam, Jazz and Tucker glanced at each other nervously. "What are you doing?" Jazz finally asked after a few moments of Vlad's secretive movements.

"I've been studying ghost hybrids for twenty years," Vlad finally said, as a bright, magenta flash briefly lit the room. He turned around, revealing a glass full of a liquid the same color. "And I believe that I've discovered a way to grant one of you ghost powers, temporarily, at least,"

There was a pause.

"You believe?" Jazz asked, disbelievingly, "Have you tested it?" Vlad looked uncomfortable.

"Of course I have," he said, seemingly affronted, "just not on a human…" he trailed off, smiling slightly.

"I'll do it," Sam said suddenly, despite her better judgment. In the end though, the thought of Danny imprisoned in the Ghost-Zone while she did nothing was too much to bear. Jazz and Tucker both looked surprised, and Vlad wore a slightly shocked smile for a moment before he quickly regained his stony countenance.

"Excellent,"

* * *

"Get away from me ghost!" Valerie yelled angrily, even as she backed up against the wall—keeping as far away from the spirit as she could.

After Plasmius had taken her into the ghost zone, he'd conversed with a ghost whom Valerie assumed to be something of a warden. Shortly afterward, Plasmius had disappeared in a red flash, and Walker had commanded several guards to put the defenseless Valerie into a cell.

She was unrestrained, which only further aggravated her, sending the message that she wasn't seen as much of a threat. And what was worse, Valerie knew that without her ghost hunting equipment, she really wasn't a threat. And that angered her.

"News flash human," the ghost-warden said, "You're in the Ghost-Zone, which is full of nothing but ghosts,"

Valerie's mouth opened to retort, but nothing came out, as she had nothing to say to that. For the first time since her capture she thought about her situation. No one knew where she was, she was defenseless, and the captive of a ghost.

A ghost whom she knew to be ruthless, since everyone knew that all ghosts were ruthless. She suddenly almost felt sorry for the ghost-kid she'd had locked up in her basement. Then she felt a flare of anger at herself for thinking such a thing, that horrible ghost-kid, Phantom, was her nemesis, and she would see his demise.

Coming out of her musings on the mysterious Phantom, Valerie decided that it would behoove her to pay more attention to the ghost menace in front of her, who at the moment was pulling some rather dangerous looking gloves from an inside pocket. "These," the white clothed weirdo said, holding up his now gloved hands, "are a modified pair of Ghost-Gauntlets," he peered at her from over top of his flexing fingers, "Care to guess what they do?"

Valerie didn't want to scream as the ghost raised his fist, but after the first steel fist slammed into her stomach and sent her reeling, she realized that she wouldn't be able to hold them back for long.

* * *

Sam eyed the red mixture warily as she swirled it around in the glass. Vlad arched an eyebrow at her in question. She glared at him, and quickly, before she lost her nerve, tipped back the glass and slammed it down.

Her first thought was that it tasted remarkably like…nothing. Almost like tap water, Sam thought cynically, wondering how Vlad had managed that.

Then, suddenly she felt something bubble in her stomach, but it wasn't ghost powers spreading through her veins, at least not really.

She realized what was happening a moment too late, as she tried to spin and warn Tucker and Jazz. Her body didn't obey. She screamed, but her mouth wouldn't move and no sound came out. She suddenly couldn't focus on what she wanted to, her eyes moved seemingly of their own accord.

But Sam knew better, she knew she was trapped in her own body.

Only Vlad noticed the brief inner struggle, and it was him alone who saw the almost instantaneous flash of red go through the young girl's eyes before they blinked back to her normal violet. Satisfied, Vlad quickly became invisible and floated up through the ceiling, departing unnoticed by Jazz and Tucker, both of whom were watching Sam with some amount of trepidation.

Just as Vlad arrived in the kitchen and became visible once more, the front door was flung open with a bang, and a very surprised Vlad turned around to find Jack and Maddie Fenton coming inside, arms loaded with luggage.

"Vlad?" Maddie asked, as she put her three largest bags on Jack's already massive pile, blocking his view of Vlad. The hulking man's knees wobbled slightly for a moment before he settled himself and started up the stairs.

"Be down in a flash V-man," Jack shouted in his booming voice as he climbed the stairs.

"Take your time," Vlad said, characteristically, as he started towards Maddie. He took her hand chivalrously, and bent to one knee and kissed it. Maddie flinched slightly, but allowed the billionaire to go ahead with his courtly, though trivial antics.

Before Vlad had returned to his full height, Jack had reappeared, thumping the smaller man on the back, as usual, completely oblivious to his own strength. Were it not for his years of ghost-fighting experience, Vlad would have toppled over, as it was, he stumbled forward, stepping on Maddie's foot and causing her to yelp in shock.

A good thing too, as a moment later, Tucker and Jazz came up the stairs, having only just stopped their conversation at Mrs. Fenton's yelp. Jazz immediately glared at the only half-ghost in the room, who rolled his eyes and then focused on his romantic interest, as he produced a piece of paper from his inside pocket.

He was about to speak when Jack looked around the room, "Where's Danny?" He asked loudly, causing Maddie to look up from her throbbing foot and Jazz and Tucker to look at each other in fear.

* * *

Danny sat in the dark, dank, cold cell, rubbing his swollen jaw with annoyance. Walker's Ghost-Gauntlets had really been made well. He hadn't lasted very long in ghost-mode, and after the first few punches he'd collapsed and changed back to Danny Fenton once again.

But Danny Fenton was just what the ghost-gauntlets had been redesigned for, so all Walker needed to do was spin a little dial before he continued as effectively as if he were still Danny Phantom.

He wasn't hurt too much, just a few cuts and scrapes and some torn cloths.

Danny sighed, as he eyed the pathetic meal lying in front of him — piece of bread and a glass of dirty water. Closing his eyes, Danny put the glass to his lips and choked it down, feeling the ghostly, chilled water refresh his arid mouth. Too soon, the water was gone, and Danny was now left desiring more water than before he'd been given the refreshments.

Picking up the bread in one of his shackled hands, Danny noticed for the first time how hungry he actually was. He thought that it might have something to do with being in ghost-mode. Come to think of it, he wasn't sure if he could even eat at all as a ghost. But he wasn't about to find out now; he had to conserve the little energy he still had left if he ever got the chance to escape. Which he knew was unlikely.

As he finished the bread, his thoughts wandered back to the subject he wanted to think about least of all, the death of his friends. His utter depression and stoic, uncaring demeanor had recently given way to rage.

Rage at himself, rage at Valerie for keeping him locked up all night when his friends needed him, but most of all, his rage was directed towards Plasmius, the one who did the actual killing.

Vlad would pay for what he did to Tucker and Sam. There would be no doubt about that, Danny thought. And this time, he would not let up, there would be no mercy, no stupid thermos for his arch-nemesis, he resolved. He. Would. Kill. Him.

But a moment later, with a sick feeling, Danny knew that he'd already had the chance to beat Vlad, and he'd failed.

Resolving to destroy Vlad when he next saw him, Danny decided that he should try to sleep as much as possible when he could. As he stretched out on the dirty, stone floor, he vowed to avenge his friend's deaths — no matter the cost.

* * *

"Maddie," Vlad said, brandishing the paper and handing it to her slowly. "I found this on the kitchen table. I'm sorry,"

Maddie took the paper with shaking hands and a brief, questioning glance at Vlad. She read it for a moment, and gasped loudly at the end. "What does it say, mom?" Jazz asked, looking at Vlad suspiciously. He merely smiled shortly.

"It — it says that a ghost named Walker took Danny into the ghost-zone," she said shakily, looking past Vlad to Jack.

"What?" Jack boomed, ripping the note from his wife's hands and quickly reading it himself.

"Why would a ghost do that?" Tucker said, also eyeing Vlad.

"Isn't it obvious, my boy?" Vlad said calmly, smiling at Tucker knowingly, "With the greatest ghost-hunters in history as his parents, I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner,"

Jack and Maddie looked at Vlad in disbelief for a moment, but it was a brief moment. In a flash, and as if on cue, both Jack and Maddie looked at each other and set their jaws determinedly. Maddie then leaned up and gave her husband a quick peck on the lips before she spun around, and walked purposely down the stairs, Jack following.

"I'll get the speeder ready," Maddie called to Jack as they walked, "You get together anything we'll need,"

Vlad, Jazz and Tucker were left standing in the kitchen, staring at each other in surprise. "They took that… well," Tucker said, nonplussed.

"Quite," Vlad said, regaining his composure and disappearing through the floor, leaving Tucker and Jazz alone once again.

"I am so glad Danny doesn't do that," Jazz said in frustration as she spun on her heel and traipsed down the stairs, left with no other option, Tucker followed.


	6. Reunited

Disclaimer: I own nothing

**The Master Plan**

_Uric Igi Shelps_

**Chapter 6**

Reunited

Danny awoke to the sound of his cell door slamming open and clanging against the inside wall loudly. He opened his eyes and looked up to find a thin, attractive feminine figure silhouetted against the light's of the outside corridor. Wondering who the heck this could possibly be, Danny sat up against the far side of his cell and squinted at the approaching figure.

"Hello Daniel," the figure said in a voice that he would recognize instantly. Danny was getting to his feet as she stepped fully into the cell, and even through the shadows, Danny recognized her immediately. He sat down again. Hard.

"No," he managed, and even though his back was already flush with the wall, Danny tried to push himself farther into it.

"Oh yes," Sam said, as she floated slightly above the ground in front of him, confirming what Danny had already feared. "You let me die, and now I'm here to return the favor,"

Sam's usually violet eyes glowed a horrible red, and her hands were suddenly engulfed in ectoplasmic flame. She raised her arms together and fired one, wide blast right at Danny, who was too shocked to move.

The blast's aim was true, and connected with Danny's chest. Had he not already been against the wall, he'd have been blown a good twenty feet, but as there was no where for him to go, his chest absorbed the full force, and his head whipped backwards and connected with the rough stone painfully.

Danny collapsed on the floor, disbelievingly. He felt Sam's ghost-empowered arms grab his shirt roughly and she pullled him up to look him in the eye. She grinned at him crazily, a smile that Danny would have never imagined he'd see on her pretty face. He saw, as if in slow motion, her fist rear back as far as it would go, before it swung at him, hitting him squarely in the jaw.

His head jerked back once more, and Danny's already injured jaw felt like it had been cleaved in two. He opened his eyes once more in time to see her fist connect with his head again, this time right between the eyes.

She dropped him, and he collapsed on the ground helplessly, his nose bleeding and his jaw throbbing. Still too shocked to do much more than wonder at how Sam was already such a powerful ghost, Danny only vaguely saw her heavy boot connect with his midsection and send him rolling away from her until he stopped at the wall, looking up through swollen eyes at his best friend's ghost.

Sam held up a hand in front of her, as if inspecting her palm, and a long, sharp, ectoplasmic-blade suddenly formed in her hand. The curved blade fit perfectly within her delicate hand, and she smiled her sadistic smile once again as she bent down on one knee and put the blade to his throat.

But as Danny looked into her blood red eyes, he saw a brief flicker, and then a grimace passed over her formerly determined face. For a moment, her eyes were their usual violet, and her face was contorted in fear, but then the calm, cold killer was back and her eyes became crimson once again.

"Any last words, Daniel?" She asked in a voice that was slightly deeper than before.

The blade was pushed up against his neck now, and Danny knew that this Sam would have no trouble killing him, despite the brief flash of the girl he knew.

Propping himself up on one arm, Danny looked her in the eye, set his jaw, and with great effort and pain in his inflamed jaw, spoke; "I — I love you, Sam, for what it's worth," he gasped out, as he let himself fall back to the ground.

When he opened his eyes again, the red blade in Sam's hand was gone, and Danny could clearly see an inner struggle of sorts playing out in front of him. Alternatively, Sam's face switched from the girl he knew and loved to the psychotic ghost bent on revenge. After a few moments, Sam leaned back, and settled on her knees. Her hands were clawing frantically at her stomach.

The red aura that had been around her since her entrance was gone, and Danny could here her muttering frantically, although it sounded like someone yelling from far away. Suddenly, Sam looked up at him, with an expression clearly showing fear and desperation. "Get out of me!" She suddenly shouted, in a voice that Danny knew well as Sam's.

And then it clicked, he finally understood. As the sweet relief washed over him, Danny summoned the little energy he had left, and reached out to Sam. Grabbing her shoulder to steady himself, Danny pulled himself up and cried out as he became intangible. Before he lost his nerve and his energy, Danny launched himself through Sam, and as he expected, he collided with someone midway through.

His forward momentum pushed both intangible ghosts from Sam's corporeal form, and Danny and the ghost flew past Sam and became tangible again as they hit the ground.

Danny was unconscious as soon as he hit the ground, having used up his last bit of energy to free Sam from being overshadowed. Sam held on to consciousness long enough to see a very amused Plasmius phase through Danny's unconscious body before she collapsed in he exhaustion.

Plasmius floated up and above the two teens and grinned. He hadn't really expected the girl to let him kill Daniel, it would have been nice, he'd admit, but it really wasn't important to the plan.

As for the boy knowing that his friends weren't dead, well that was fine, he'd have found out eventually anyway.

He laughed as he grabbed the remote from Sam's pocket and disappeared with a magenta flash. The cell door slammed shut behind him, echoing ominously and cutting off most of the light to the cell, plunging both unconscious teens into darkness.

* * *

By the time Tucker and Jazz made it downstairs, Maddie had already positioned the Specter Speeder in front of the Fenton Portal, and Jack was in the Fenton Weapons Vault, tossing out weapons of unknown purpose onto a pile at the vault threshold.

Vlad stood near Maddie, looking around and pretending to inspect the outside of the speeder as Maddie tested each weapon one at a time.

"Mom," Jazz called striding over to the older women and getting her attention. "What should Tucker and I do?"

"Activate the ghost-shield," Maddie said without looking at the two teens, "and then you can go upstairs and watch the news to see if there is any other paranormal activity,"

Tucker ran off to turn on the shield, but Jazz continued to stand there. "Mom!" She said in frustration, "I want to come and help get Danny,"

Maddie stopped her button pushing and looked through the speeder's windshield at her daughter. "Jazz," she started, "I always swore to myself that you and Danny would never get caught up in this ghost-hunting we do," she sighed, missing Vlad's amused snort, "And since Danny's already in too deep, I'm not going to let you get hurt for this as well, it's our fault,"

Jazz stared at her mother for a moment, before she sighed as well and went to help Tucker find the switch to activate the ghost-shield.

By the time they found the switch, turned on the shield and got back the adults, the speeder was already loaded up, and Jack, Maddie and Vlad were getting in. "Why is he going?" Jazz asked, pointing towards the billionaire between Jack and Maddie.

"Because I care for young Daniel as much as you do, Jasmine," Vlad said smoothly, "And I want to make sure we find him," Tucker and Jazz matched Vlad's sneer with glares.

"Good luck," Tucker said, pulling a furious Jazz away from the vehicle. "Bring them back,"

Maddie looked at Tucker questioningly, "Them?"

"Let's go!" Vlad said, hitting the throttle before Maddie could further inquire, and sending the three adults speeding into the portal, leaving Tucker and Jazz in the basement, wondering what to do while their friends, family and Vlad were in the Ghost-Zone.

* * *

Sam awoke to the clanging sound of the cell door opening. She immediately recognized Walker's floating form cross the threshold, with two guards on either side of him. He sure didn't take his security lightly.

"Ah," Walker said, upon seeing Sam sit up, "I've been expecting you, glad to see that Vlad held up his half of the bargain,"

He eyed the still unconscious Danny with contempt for a moment before he snapped his fingers and two guards put down a plate full of some of the most disgusting looking meat Sam had ever seen, and a pitcher of water.

Another ghost put down two empty glasses, and a dish with the same meal in front of Sam. Walker's face split into a large grin, "Enjoy," with that, they all left, the door slamming closed again.

Sam crawled past her meal and kneeled next to Danny. Rolling him onto his back, she gasped when she saw his face.

There was a line of dried blood leading from his nose and trailing over his lips and down his chin. He had a nasty looking black eye forming where she'd punched him, and his chin was already swelling.

"Danny," she whispered, shaking him slightly. "Danny, wake up,"

Danny groaned slightly and his eyes fluttered open. It took his tired eyes a moment to adjust to the darkness and find Sam. When he did, his eyes widened and he pushed himself away from her until he was sitting against the wall staring at her, terrified.

"Danny?" Sam asked, confused at his fear.

"No," Danny whispered, shaking his head, "No, you're — you — Vlad killed you,"

"What?" Sam nearly shouted in shock and confusion, "I'm right here Danny,"

Danny stared at her unnervingly, "You're — not dead?" He whispered desperately after a minute.

"Plasmius overshadowed me," Sam said in answer, "You got him out — remember?"

Danny looked at her for another moment or so, and then he reached one trembling hand out to her, and touched her cheek hesitantly before he pulled his arm back quickly. He looked at her again, and smiled, before he suddenly jumped forward and hugged her incredibly tightly and incredibly un-Danny-like.

"Danny?" Sam asked as he continued to embrace her just as tightly, and even though she was secretly thrilled with Danny's sudden interest in her, she knew this wasn't the time for romantic musings. Although he did say that he lov—

"I thought you were dead," Danny said suddenly, interrupting her train of thought as he pulled away from her so that he could meet her eye properly.

"I didn't get the memo," Sam drawled sarcastically. Danny's beaten face split into a grin, and Sam couldn't help but smile as well.

"You really are Sam, then," he said, still smiling. He glanced past her and suddenly noticed what Sam had assumed to be food. "Food," he exclaimed, dropping his arms from her shoulders and sliding towards the dish. He grimaced at the plate, but picked up a fork anyway.

"You're not actually going to eat that, are you?" Sam asked incredulous. The 'meal' was made up of a surprisingly large piece of moldy looking meat, surrounded by some brown looking vegetables and a rock hard piece of bread.

Danny looked at her seriously. "I haven't eaten since yesterday afternoon, since then I've gotten about two hours of sleep, been beaten by Walker, captured by first Valerie, than Plasmius, and went through the trauma of watching you and Tucker die — Tucker is alive right?"

Sam merely nodded as Danny visibly relaxed. "Besides," he said, cutting into the meat, "If we're gonna get out of here, I'll need some sort of energy," Sam watched, disgusted, as Danny devoured the meat with a grimace on his face. It was soon apparent just how hungry he was, and he quickly devoured everything on his plate, and was eyeing Sam's dish with desire.

"Go right ahead," she said quickly, not nearly hungry enough to eat that.

"Are you sure," Danny asked, looking from the food to Sam and back again. Sam just nodded.

As he ate the meal, slightly less ravenously this time, Danny suddenly thought of something. "What happened to my shackles? He asked Sam, looking at his free hands curiously.

Sam just shrugged, "I think Vlad cut them off by accident while—" she trailed off guiltily. "I'm sorry Danny," she said suddenly. "I almost killed you, and I would of if you hadn't—"

Danny put a finger to her lips to stop her. "You did everything you could and more," he said honestly, "Plasmius is powerful, and the fact that you could disrupt his control over you shows just how strong _you _are. You saved my life,"

Sam blushed and looked away from him as Danny finished his meal. They sat in silence for a few minutes before Sam spoke up, "Now what?"

Danny looked at her uncertainly. "I guess we try to escape the next time someone comes in," he slid her one of the plates. "Use this as a shield if they try to shoot you, but I should be able to hold them off,"

"How!" Sam asked, "You said yourself that you hardly have any energy left, how can you fight off Walker and his guards,"

Danny looked at her seriously for a minute, "I am exhausted," he admitted, but his determined expression never left. "But I'm also pissed,"

* * *

Vlad sighed as he saw Walker's prison looming ahead of them. The vehicle's detection of anything from the human world had lead them directly to the prison, as it detected the clothes that young Daniel and (although the Fenton's didn't know it) Samantha had been wearing. Jack stopped the speeder several dozen feet from the wall and quickly grabbed some weapons whose purpose Vlad could only guess at and jumped out.

Maddie and Vlad followed him, while Jack tossed Vlad a very large gun that he had no intention of using. Vlad also noticed that Maddie had put the Specter Deflector on, which, as strong as he was, would only hurt for a moment.

Jack armed himself with his Jack-A-Nine-Tails in one hand and his Fenton Fisher in the other, while Maddie activated the Fenton Ghost Peeler, and was soon encased in a suit of armor that fit itself to her body.

Vlad looked up, and right on cue, one of his duplicates flew up through the ground, followed closely by Skulker.

"The Wisconsin ghost!" Jack boomed, gripping the Fenton Fisher tighter in his left hand. Skulker cleared his throat, and Jack looked past Plasmius to the Ghost-Zone's greatest hunter. "And — that other ghost!" He added lamely.

Skulker narrowed his eyes, "I am Skulker!" He shouted characteristically, as both Vlad and his duplicate rolled their eyes in sync. "The Ghost-Zone's greatest hunter! You will soon rue the day you met me!"

With those dramatic words, Skulker fired one of his many cannons at Jack, whose dodge was surprisingly agile. Jack turned his dodge into offense as he rolled onto his feet and brandished the Jack-A-Nine-Tails. "You may be the Ghost-Zone's greatest hunter," Jack said as he whipped the Jack-A-Nine-Tails over his head, "But I'm Earth's greatest hunter!" With that, he flung the Jack-A-Nine-Tails forward at Skulker, who merely phased through it with a grin.

"Oh," Jack said in surprise, as Vlad stifled a laugh.

* * *

Danny and Sam sat against the wall opposite the door, waiting for their chance to escape. They'd been waiting in silence for nearly an hour now, Danny thought, and so far no one had even neared the door.

Sam had just dropped her head onto Danny's shoulder when the unmistakable sound of the key sliding in the door made her jump up. Danny stood up as well and stood in front of Sam.

Concentrating, there was a bright flash of light as two white rings appeared at his midsection and turned him into Danny Phantom once again. He grabbed Sam's hand and turned them both invisible just as the door swung open, revealing three of Walker's guards.

They peered inside the cell curiously, and finding it empty, floated fully inside. Then Sam flung one of the metal plates at the guard closest to her. The makeshift discus flew the short distance and connected with the guard right in the throat.

He collapsed, grabbing his throat in shock. The other two guards spun around just in time to be hit in the face with a pair of ectoplasmic blasts. Danny allowed himself to become visible once more and quickly zipped closer to the ghosts, punching the one closest to him square in the jaw.

The ghost sailed into the wall, where he collapsed to the ground, unmoving. Danny quickly elbowed the last ghost standing in the nose, then spun and kicked him in the chest sending the guard to join his comrade on the ground.

Sam was already at the door, peering down both sides of the hall, and motioning for Danny to hurry out. Danny flew out through the door as Sam slammed it behind him, locking the downed guards in the cell.

The lights in the corridor dazzled Danny's eyes, and he closed them for a few moments as he waited for his pupils to constrict and adjust to the lights. Blinking a few moments later, Danny nodded to Sam as he followed her down the hall.

The corridor was just as uninviting as the cell they'd just escaped from, with the only difference being the bright lights, which illuminated the red tinted stones and bland, nearly invisible doors.

"Do you remember how to get out?" Danny whispered to Sam as he floated slightly behind her.

"I think so," Sam replied after a moment, pausing as they reached a four-way intersection. She peered down both halls and thought for a moment. "I think it's this way," she said pointing down the hall to the right and looking at him in silent question.

Danny merely shrugged; he hadn't exactly paid any mind to his surroundings on the way in, and although Sam had been overshadowed upon her entrance, apparently she had gleaned some sense of direction. They followed the same corridor for several minutes before Sam suddenly turned to him. "I know where we are now," she whispered.

Danny arched an eyebrow and looked at the corridor they were in. He saw nothing to set this stretch of hall apart from the stretch of hall ten feet behind them. "If you say so," he said skeptically. Sam smiled.

She turned towards the wall on her right and eyed the rough ecto-stone for a moment. Smiling once again, she reached out and pushed at what looked to Danny as a completely random stone. Danny gaped as the stone she shuddered violently, before it suddenly stopped. Then every stone on either side of it disappeared before Danny's eyes, followed by every stone above and below it, and soon enough a five by five foot section of the wall was completely invisible.

Torches flared to life behind the invisible wall, revealing a long, curving passage that distantly disappeared into shadows. Sam reached for Danny's hand and pulled him through the nonexistent wall.

After walking in a confused silence for a few moments, Danny found his voice. "What was that?" He asked her finally, all to aware that she was still holding his hand.

"This is a secret passage that I — er — Vlad and I took on the way in," she said, "I'm actually amazed that I found it again,"

"I'm not surprised," Danny muttered under his breath, unaware of Sam's blush when she heard him. They continued to walk down the dimly lit passage, holding hands and taking pleasure in being together, despite the circumstances.


	7. Encore

Disclaimer: I don't own anything

**The Master Plan**

_Uric Igi Shelps_

**Chapter 7**

Encore

The passage ended up leading them out past the walls of the prison, as Sam knew it would. They emerged from the route in a secluded and shadowy corner in the prison's outer walls, and when they came out they were shocked to find both of Danny's parents fighting Skulker and Plasmius—with Vlad Masters of all people standing next to the ghost-hunting duo.

Despite himself, Danny couldn't help but be impressed that Vlad could duplicate his ghost half and remain human. That skill alone would solve so many of his identity problems, and it might even make a semi-normal teenage life possible. Knowing that those thoughts didn't help him at the moment whatsoever, Danny thought about why Vlad would need two of himself at the same spot.

Come to think of it, both Masters and Plasmius weren't doing much of anything, human-Vlad was standing near Maddie, and ghost-Vlad was just floating there, arms crossed, and eyes locked on Maddie…

Danny knew what Vlad was planning, and despite how pathetic it seemed, he knew that Vlad shouldn't be allowed to succeed. If he did, then he'd have his foot in the door, so to speak, and Danny wasn't going to let that happen.

During his musings, Danny had forgotten that Sam was still holding his hand, until she gave a muffled yelp suddenly and pulled it free. Confused, Danny saw that both his hands were glowing with green ectoplasm, ready to fire. "Sorry," he said, embarrassed, "Are you okay?"

Sam just rolled her eyes but grinned nonetheless. "Why are there two Vlad's?" She asked him, having obviously been thinking along the same lines.

"I think he wants to save my mom from himself and look like a hero," he said, surprised at how semi-normal that sounded. Sam made an agreeable sound as she watched his dad fight off Skulker with surprising effectiveness, the ghost-zone's greatest hunter was actually being held off by Jack's two weapons.

"Listen," Danny said moments later, "You stay here while I stop Vlad, once that's done I'll come back, go back to normal and we'll run out and make up some escape excuse, sound good?"

Sam merely nodded, "Be careful," she warned, smiling slightly, "Things are never what they seem when Vlad's around,"

Danny knew that all too well and smiled back. "See you in a few,"

He took off towards the fray, becoming invisible almost immediately. He watched from some distance as Plasmius drifted behind his mom, and as Masters slipped closer to her, Danny knew it was time.

Plasmius held out one arm, which soon glowed a soft blue, and fired it at Maddie. Danny was already near his mother, and closing fast, as he flew at full speed — even as human-Vlad got ready to dive tackle her.

It was a race between Vlad, the ectoblast and the speeding, now visible Danny.

Danny won.

He reached out and grabbed his oblivious mom around the waist and continued flying, as Vlad Masters flew right behind him, followed immediately by the weak ectoblast.

After Danny grabbed his mom, three things happened nearly at once. The first, was Vlad Masters screaming in rage and frustration at Danny. The second was Vlad Plasmius disappearing in a magenta flash, the light zipping into human-Vlad in the blink of an eye. Lastly, the Specter Deflector activated, sending an enormous amount of pain throug Danny's entire body.

He tried to fight it, but the pain became too much for him, and he had no choice but to let go of his mom. Fortunately, they'd been flying very low to the ground, only about a foot high. Unfortunately, they'd been flying incredibly fast.

Maddie hit the ground and the sheer weight of her armor stopped her from bouncing, and the force of her armored body created a large crater all around her. Danny wasn't so lucky, and he hit the ground and kept rolling and bouncing a good ten feet before he stopped. Groaning, Danny pushed himself up, and came face to face with the business end of the ghost Peeler.

He froze, having a good idea of what such a weapon could do to him in his weakened state. It would be bad enough when his energy gave out and he became Danny Fenton once more, in front of his mom no less, but he imagined the pain would be incredible. He heard the whirring noise as the peeler charged up, and although he wanted nothing more than to get the hell out of the way, his body wouldn't obey.

He saw, distantly, his mom's mocking face through the mask, she grinned victoriously, and Danny closed his eyes.

In doing so, he missed the look of surprise on Maddie's face as she was knocked aside by a soaring ghost net, which flew past the downed Maddie and engulfed a very surprised Danny. The net stopped and changed direction, dragging Danny back towards the open prison gates before anyone knew what had happened.

Once Danny was within the prison walls, half a dozen guards zoomed out through the gates, as Walker himself approached the three adults.

No one noticed Skulker fly off into the distance, satisfied that he'd done enough for the moment.

Even from where he was, Danny could hear Walker's superior voice, "Humans in the Ghost-Zone?" He paused dramatically, "That's against the rules,"

He snapped his fingers, and the guards who had encircled the Fentons and Vlad, snapped forward at once. Two grabbed Jack and Maddie each, and while two more guards tried to attack Vlad—he merely phased intangible, and once the guards realized their mistake — they backed off immediately, terrified at the expression on Vlad's face.

When the guards started dragging Maddie and Jack towards the prison, Danny snapped out of his daze. "No!" He yelled, becoming intangible and jumping up, ready to flyi through the net. The problem, was that the net didn't let Danny fly through it, instead it shocked him with the same voltage he'd felt from Valerie's net. It had the same effect, forcing Danny to give up as he became solid and slumped to the ground.

Two rings of light formed around his waist and started repelling from one another. Danny's eyes widened, he couldn't let this happen now! Screwing his eyes up in concentration, Danny put all of his mental strength into stopping those rings.

The light had been just up to Danny's armpits and knees and moving fast, but after a moment of intense concentration, they slowed down and then stopped completely. A second later, they started to move back together, slowly but surely.

After what felt like an agonizingly long time, the rings merged into one bright light, before completely disappearing a moment later, leaving Danny Phantom exhausted and gasping for breath.

By the time Danny had enough strength to look up, his dad was still being dragged toward the gates, but his mom and Vlad were free and fighting, though they continued to be pushed back towards the parked Specter Speeder.

Danny could only watch helplessly as his father was thrown through the gates, landing painfully, right next to Danny. A moment later, and by some signal Danny must have missed, all of Walker's guards pulled back. Once all of Walker's goons made it back past the threshold, the gates swung closed, cutting off Danny and his father from Maddie and Vlad.

Walker turned around and faced his two captives, sneering at them haughtily. "Well, well, well," he said as he floated closer to Danny. "The famous ghost-kid," he eyed Jack, "And the infamous Jack Fenton, together again,"

"Let me go ghost!" Jack yelled, "I don't care what you do with Inviso-bill here, but you'll regret kidnapping Jack Fenton!"

"It's Dan — Phantom! Just Phantom!" Danny yelled in frustration. Walker just laughed.

"Anything you'd like to say to your son, Mr. Fenton?" Walker asked, sneering at Danny's wide eyes.

"My son?" Jack asked, ironically staring right at Danny. "What have you done to Danny?"

Walker laughed, "Rest assured, Jack, I hold no grudge against Danny Fenton,"

"Then why did you take him, what's he ever done to you?"

Walker laughed again, "I expect even your meager mind will figure it out soon enough,"

From Jack's expression, Danny thought that was unlikely. "For now," Walker said then, starting to float away, "I bid you adieu, Jack Fenton," he snapped his fingers, and three of his guards picked up Danny's net. "But you can come with me…Phantom,"

Danny was carried away from his dad and into the main building. Deciding that there was no more reason to waste energy, Danny sighed and changed back to human, as soon as he did, he promptly phased right through the net and onto the ground painfully. "Ouch," Danny muttered, rubbing the shoulder he'd landed on.

Walker was studying him now. After a moment he shrugged and tossed one of his guards a pair of Ghost-Gauntlets. Once the guard put the gloves on, he roughly pulled Danny to his feet and pushed him forward, urging him to follow the procession, while keeping one hand securely on Danny's shoulder.

They continued walking and floating through the corridors. They'd only been walking for about five minutes when they stopped, and Danny was thrown through the closed door. He landed, and had just vaguely realized that the room seemed to be an office, when the door opened and Walker floated through, alone now, but wearing the Ghost-Gauntlets.

"Sit down, please," he said to Danny gesturing to the two chairs in front of his desk as he sat down behind it. Danny picked himself up and went to sit down, when he saw, with a sick feeling, Sam tied to the other chair.

"Hi Danny," she said dejectedly.

"No…" he groaned, dropping into the chair miserably. "What do you need with her?" He asked dejectedly, "She's got nothing to do with this,"

Walker leaned back in his chair leisurely. "Vlad instructed me to keep her here for a while," he admitted calmly, "It's part of some plan of his that I really don't care about, so I'll let her go once Vlad says I can,"

He turned and focused his gaze on Danny, "But you," he said with a colder tone, "Have become much more troubling than Plasmius said you'd be," Danny arched an eyebrow, "Regardless," he said standing up, "You need to be taught a lesson,"

Before Danny could react, Walker arched his fist and slammed it into Danny's chin, snapping his head back and flipping Danny from the overturning chair and knocking him to the ground.

Rubbing his jaw, Danny stood up just in time to hear Sam's scream, and to see another fist slam into his face, this time knocking him into the office wall, which he phased through, before he finally stopped in the hallway. Picking himself up again, Danny heard Sam's scream and felt his blood boil.

Danny went ghost, and blasted a whole in the wall. He flew through the cloud of ecto-smoke and dust and punched the unprepared Walker in the stomach. While he was winded, Danny grabbed him by his collar, reared back and punched him across the face, sending the ghost warden flying into a wall, which was very solid to ghosts.

Walker picked himself up and charged at Danny, his fists swinging. Danny ducked nimbly and swung his leg around in an attempt to trip his attacker. Walker's feet became a murky cloud as the leg passed through them, and Danny cursed his stupidity as a leg materialized from the cloud and kicked him squarely in the jaw, sending him reeling once again.

His back slammed into the wall, and he groaned in pain. He didn't see Walker's gloved fist coming until it was inches from his face. He braced for the impact, but it never came. He opened his eyes to see Walker cursing in frustration as he pulled his arm from Danny's unmarred face.

Danny watched in confusion as Walker ripped the Ghost-Gauntlets off and tossed them away. "Should have known they wouldn't work on a ghost," he said, and prepared to hit Danny again, but the half-ghost was already dodging, and Walker's fist hit the wall harmlessly.

Danny was behind him in a flash, and slammed the ghost's head into the wall, he jumped up, planted his feet on Walker's back and pushed off, propelling himself away even as he fired an ectoplasmic blast at Walker's recovering form.

The force of the explosion blasted Walker through the wall, creating a large hole in it as Walker hit the wall across the corridor. Seizing his chance, Danny spun to the unharmed Sam and turned her intangible as he dragged her to her feet, now free of the normal ropes. "Are you okay?" He asked, concerned.

"Just fine," Sam muttered, looking at Danny's bruised and battered face with sympathy. "Are _you_ okay?" She asked, putting a hand to his cheek and wiping some green-tinted blood from a cut on his face. Danny smiled at her and had just lowered his head when he was blasted away, flying straight through yet another wall before hitting the next one, stopping and falling in a crumpled heap.

"Holy crap," he said, sitting up and rubbing his head a moment later, "What the heck was that?"

"That," Skulker said with a sneer, "Is a little something I designed just for you, whelp," he laughed when Danny rolled his eyes. "Just give it a minute to work,"

Danny jumped up and rocketed at Skulker, his green eyes flaring. "I don't think so!" He yelled lamely, slamming into the hunter's stomach, sending both of them into the office desk, which splintered into five pieces. Danny punched Skulker in the face, ducked a half-hearted counter punch and was just about to fire an ectoblast at him when he stopped.

He stumbled backwards on unsteady legs, and used the remaining chair to hold himself up. He put his hand to his forehead, looking as if he had a migraine. "Danny?" Sam asked uncertainly, walking over to him cautiously and wrapping an arm around his waist to steady him.

"I — feel like —"but Sam never found out what he felt like, because his waist suddenly lit up in a bright white light, which split into two divergent rings. Danny seemed only vaguely aware as he quickly became Danny Fenton once again, and the rings disappeared. Sam realized what Skulker's weapon had done grimly.

Meanwhile, Skulker had stood once again, and was laughing callously. "I would kill you now ghost-child," he said calmly, "But my employer needs me elsewhere, and I'm sure he'd rather kill you himself anyway, farewell,"

He strolled through a hole in the wall calmly, and Sam was left feeling completely confused as to what had just happened. "Come on Danny," she said after she recovered, "Let's get out of here,"

Danny shook his head, and he seemed to suddenly wake up. "What happened," he asked groggily, taking in his normal, jumpsuit-less appearance.

"Skulker did his job," Walker said, floating back into the room, having either found his Ghost-Gauntlets or obtained a new pair. "Now if you're done destroying my office, you can go to your cell, I'm afraid you'll find it a little more crowded than when you left it,"

More than a little worried, Sam and Danny had no choice but to follow Walker's guards — all of whom were armed with Ghost-Gauntlets — back to the cell.

* * *

It had taken a while, but Vlad had finally convinced Maddie that it'd be best if they went back to Fentonworks without Jack. A lesser man might have realized the extent of her feelings for her husband and concede the battle. But Vlad was no mere man, he was powerful, rich, good-looking, and charming, he'd have Maddie yet, he knew.

They made it back to the Fenton Portal without incident, most of the ghosts were aware of Vlad's presence, and generally chose to avoid him altogether. At this point, Vlad couldn't have cared either way.

Jazz had been extremely upset when they'd come home, not only Danny-less, but with Jack gone as well. She'd run off some time ago, with a suspicious looking Tucker following.

Maddie and Vlad had just sat down in the kitchen to talk about their next move when the phone rang, interrupting any weak plan they'd come up with. Maddie went to answer it, and although it had interrupted his time with Maddie, the side of the conversation he overheard made him smile.

She hung up and dashed over to him as she threw on a coat. "That was Mrs. Manson, Danny's friend Sam's mother," she explained what Vlad already knew; "She says that Sam's missing and she just found a ransom note on the inside of her front door. I told her we'd come over right away,"

Maddie took Vlad's hand and pulled him out of the chair, "Lead the way," he said playfully, following his love out the door.

* * *

To say that Danny was surprised to find Valerie and his father siting in their cell, talking like old friends would be an understatement. The fact that both ghost-hunters had been cursing out Danny Phantom and plotting his demise hadn't made him feel any better about their situation.

Valerie and his father had been just as surprised to see the two teens become their cellmates.

Sam and Danny quickly came up with an unconvincing story where they'd just happened to be in the lab when a ghost had come out, grabbed them and brought them here.

"What happened to your face?" Jack asked, noticing the numerous bruises, cuts and scratches on his son's face.

Sam and Danny exchanged nervous looks, "I — uh — hit my head on the portal as he dragged us in,"

Valerie looked skeptical, "What about the scratches?"

"He hit a light bulb," Sam supplied, looking at Danny sheepishly and shrugging.

Valerie eyed them both for a second before smiling. "You're both lying," she said grinning, "I bet you were fighting, weren't you?"

Danny looked at Sam again, "I — uh — yeah…" Danny said, unsure of how much she knew.

"Really?" Jack asked, looking at Danny with something akin to pride. "I knew you'd turn out just like your old man!" He jumped up and mimed something that looked like boxing. Danny could only assume he was 'boxing' a ghost. "Fighting to the end I bet," he boasted, still boxing the nonexistent ghost.

"Yep," Sam said with a grin at Danny and a slight blush, "He's my hero,"

Danny blushed as well, and looked away, seeing Valerie glare at Sam. "And what were you doing Sam?" Valerie asked coldly, "Hiding in a corner?"

Sam's smile turned into a glare, but her blush remained. "What would you have done?" Sam shot back, "His parents are ghost-hunters, so unless you have some sort of ghost-hunting gear, you'd have done the same thing!" Sam smiled, recognizing that Valerie would be in a tough position. She could either concede to Sam, or admit her ghost-hunting secret to all of them.

Valerie glanced back and forth from Danny to Sam, then Jack and finally back at Sam. "I do have ghost-hunting gear," she finally said, shocking both Danny and Sam, which had lucky effect of making it look like they hadn't already known. Jack even stopped his miming when he heard 'ghost-hunting.'

"I've been fighting ghosts ever since that ghost-kid, Phantom or whatever his name is, and his dog ruined my life," her voice became colder. "I hate that Danny Phantom!" She said fiercely, earning a hug from Jack and an eye roll from Sam. It went unnoticed in the dark cell.

"Danny," Jack said once he'd separated from Valerie, "I like this girl,"

Valerie and Jack then launched into an overly detailed description of what they would do to Phantom when they caught him. Danny tried not to listen too much, but it was hard with his father's booming voice.

Sam and Danny sat on one of the two ratty cot's positioned in one of the corners, while Valerie sat on the only other cot, talking to Jack eagerly.

After Jack described in bloody detail his plans to dissect Phantom to see if ghosts had hearts, Sam reached over and gripped Danny's hand and gave it a squeeze. He looked at her and she smiled, slightly.

Danny smiled back, relieved to know that one person, at least, didn't want to cut Danny Phantom to pieces. Sam yawned loudly, and with her hand still in Danny's, leaned her head against his shoulder uncertainly, and closed her eyes.

Suddenly realizing just how tired he was, Danny laid his head atop hers and closed his eyes as well, hoping that he'd get out of all this alive, and preferably without getting exposed or dissected.


	8. Ransom

Disclaimer: I don't own anything A/N: I'm not sure if Sam's parents were ever given names, if they were, I'd be appreciative to anyone who let me know…otherwise I'll just go with the ones I made up

**The Master Plan**

_Uric Igi Shelps_

**Chapter 8**

Ransom

Maddie knocked on the Manson's front door with confidence. Vlad stood behind her, an amused smile playing at his lips. As they waited for someone to answer the door, he subtly studied his love.

She really was an amazing woman, he thought, amazed at how she was handling herself as both her son and husband were "missing" in the ghost-zone. Most mothers and wives would have called the authorities and gone off to cry; but not his Maddie. She would try to handle this herself, and if his plan hadn't been perfectly solid, he might have been worried she'd foil it for him.

He knew that both Daniel and Jack were far too dim-witted to ever seriously threaten his plans.

His musings were interrupted when the front door finally opened, revealing a haggard looking woman, wearing, to Vlad's disgust, all pink. _This _woman was that gothic girl's mother, and the same woman organizing and financing an invasion of the Ghost-Zone?

She was, nevertheless, quite beautiful — despite the running makeup — and the pink. Though she was nothing compared to his beloved Maddie, of course.

Maddie climbed the last step and reached out, cupping Mrs. Manson's hand in between her own. "Alexandra," she said soothingly, as she stepped closer and embraced the woman. She stepped away, and turned to Vlad, "Vlad Masters," she introduced, gesturing to the man, who bowed haughtily, "Alexandra Manson," she followed, introducing the crying woman in front of him.

_Pathetic_, Vlad thought disgustedly.

The girl had been gone for less than two hours; the note that he'd written specifically mentioned that no harm would come to the girl as long as the ransom was paid, there was no reason for the woman to react this way.

"A pleasure," he said, his words contradicting his feelings, "You must be terrified,"

Alexandra merely smiled — however slightly. "Yes — yes I am," she said distantly, and then she seemed to realize that they were all still standing out at the front door. "Come in, please," she emphasized the sentiment by opening the door wider and standing aside. Maddie and Vlad strode across the threshold and Alexandra closed the door behind them.

Looking around, Vlad had to admit; the Manson's had style, and they were obviously incredibly wealthy. Of course, Vlad knew all about the Manson's financial position; the whole point of a major portion of his plan relied heavily on the accuracy of that information. Young Samantha's kidnapping would be pointless if the family had significantly more money than he knew of.

Though he was confident that his sources had done their job well.

Alexandra led them through a long, lavishly decorated hallway and into an equally elegant sitting room, furnished with two extremely inviting large couches, and four expensive looking lounge chairs. An ornate fireplace adorned the far wall, looking as if it had never been used, while innumerable lamps and tables lay around at strategic places, adding to the room's décor.

There were already two people sitting in the room; an old woman sitting in a motorized scooter, whom Vlad could only assume to be Samantha's grandmother and a man he knew to be Mr. Thomas Manson, his captive's father.

He stood up, and Vlad was slightly surprised at how composed the man seemed, as he shook hands with Vlad and greeted Maddie, introducing himself as he did so. "This is my mother," Thomas said, he hesitated for a moment, looking flustered, before he went on, "She goes by Samantha as well,"

Vlad concealed a grin, somewhat relieved to know that the stoic looking father was being affected as well, but was merely hiding it. "We found this," Alexandra said as she withdrew a crumpled note from a pocket and handed it to Maddie, who read it warily as Alexandra sat down next to her husband and took his hand.

Vlad watched as Maddie's eyes scanned the note quickly; she handed the note back to Mrs. Manson and frowned, thoughtfully. "I think Sam's with Danny," she said finally, surprising every one in the room, including Vlad.

"Where's Danny," Samantha asked suspiciously, looking up at the younger woman.

She hesitated for a moment, looking from Mr. to Mrs. Manson, and finally meeting Samantha's eyes "In the Ghost-Zone," she sighed.

Vlad mentally cursed himself for handwriting both notes.

* * *

Danny woke up to the sound of the cell door being thrown open with a crash. Two guards entered, looking around, almost suspiciously as they crossed the threshold. Once they saw that they weren't about to be attacked, the two guards swept across the cell with obvious relief, before they stopped above the sleeping Jack Fenton.

Danny quietly removed himself from the still-sleeping Sam and jumped off the cot, inadvertently getting the guard's attention.

Without warning, they both spun around and shot at him. Surprised, Danny was blasted back against the wall, where he landed on the cot, jolting Sam awake. "Danny?" she asked groggily, blinking the sleep away as she sat up.

Cursing, Danny realized that both Valerie and his father had woken up. "What do you want, spooks?" his dad shouted, jumping to his feet.

"Just your execution," a voice spoke from the doorway. Unsurprisingly, Walker floated at the doorway, arms folded across his chest. Jack didn't seem to know what to say to this, as he just stared at the two guards in front of him.

A moment passed, and each guard took one of Jack's arms and led him towards the door. Danny just stared, confused. Why wasn't his father fighting back? "Can I just say goodbye to my son?" his father asked suddenly, forcing himself to stop.

Walker rolled his eyes but evidently saw no harm in it, as he silently signaled to his guards, who immediately let Jack walk towards Danny.

Danny watched as his father came up to the cot and embraced him in a crushing one-armed hug. Surprised at the gesture, Danny nearly dropped the small device that was slipped into his hand. "I want you to get these girls out of here, son," he whispered into his ear so that even Sam could not hear, "Give one of them the Fenton Mini-Shield,"

He pulled away and smiled down at him, before he inexplicably turned to Sam and hugged her as well. He whispered something into her ear that Danny didn't quite catch, but when he pulled away she was blushing like mad. "Good luck," he whispered, smiling slightly. He turned around and walked out of the cell on his own, shoving off his ghostly escorts.

Walker looked back and locked eyes with Danny once his father was gone. "This is what you get for fighting me, kid," he went to close the door, but stopped suddenly, "Oh, yeah," he remembered, "I'll send an escort for you once we're ready to do the deed, I wouldn't want you to miss the show," he slammed the door behind him, as Danny's eyes flashed dangerously.

He immediately jumped from the cot and looked at the device his dad had slipped him. The Fenton Mini-Shield, his dad had called it, was a small, high-tech looking ring, covered, of course, in small Fenton logos.

He remembered, vaguely, his mother explaining how the ring created a small Ghost-Shield around the wearer, and temporarily increased their strength and stamina. The only flaw had been the energy supply, which hadn't lasted long enough to satisfy his parents.

"Okay," Danny said finally, looking at the ring in his hand once more to strengthen his resolve. "I think we can get out of here," he continued, looking from Valerie to Sam.

"Why do you think that?" Valerie asked predictably, "Unless that thing in your hand is something that annihilates every ghost within a mile — I think we're brutally outnumbered,"

She missed both Danny and Sam flinch at her plans to annihilate every ghost in the area. "Well," Danny said, a little harsher than he'd intended, "This is a personal Ghost-Shield," he tossed the ring to Sam, who caught it easily. "When the guards come in for me, we make our move, and you two stick close together and use the shield,"

"That's your plan?" Valerie asked skeptically, raising an eyebrow and folding her arms across her chest, "There is no way that'll work,"

"Do you expect me to just sit here while they kill my dad?" Danny exploded suddenly, shocking Valerie; she'd never seen Danny angry. "I don't care if you come with me or not," he went on, in a somewhat quieter voice.

"Calm down Danny," Sam said soothingly, "No one expects you to just sit here,"

A moment passed in silence, "Why do I have to hide behind a shield?" Valerie asked, changing tactics, "I'm the only one with any ghost-hunting experience,"

"Danny's parents have been hunting ghosts since before he was born, he knows what he's doing," Sam spoke up quickly, knowing Danny's lack of skill at lying. Valerie didn't look convinced.

"Once we beat the first few guards we should be okay," Danny said, "We might not even have to fight anyone," he lied, convincing no one.

"Fine," Valerie muttered, looking doubtful.

Danny rolled his eyes indifferently. Ideally, she'd be knocked out quickly so he could "Go Ghost" and stand a better chance, but he could improvise if he had to.

Danny knew that they'd come for him soon, so he positioned himself next to the door, taking one of the chairs with him. Valerie and Sam begrudgingly moved together behind Danny, as Sam slipped the ring on.

Minutes passed in silence, and just as Danny was beginning to think that Walker wasn't going to come for him, the door opened, and two guards floated in. They paused just inside the doorframe, peering around the dark, empty looking cell.

Without waiting another moment, Danny picked up the ectoplasmic chair and hurled it at the guard closest to him, just as he saw Sam activate the ghost shield, creating a tall dome that surrounded the two girls.

The chair connected with the guard's head, sending him careening into his comrade, knocking both to the ground. With no other weapons, Danny scrambled to grab the chair again as they recovered. Just as he reached it, one of the guards recovered enough to shoot at him.

He saw it in his peripheral vision and flung himself over top of the chair as the blast sailed past him, ricocheting off of Sam's shield with a resounding clang and — incredibly — connecting with the same guard who'd fired it, knocking him out.

Deciding not to complain, Danny seized the chair again and flung it at the only conscious guard. He saw it coming and caught it nimbly, before twirling around and throwing it back at Danny.

For a moment, Danny almost became intangible, but he remembered at the last second. By then it was too late to dodge, so the chair hit him in the chest, knocking the wind out of him and throwing him backwards.

"You can't just stand there!" Valerie yelled in frustration, apparently unsatisfied with his performance.

Vaguely, he heard Sam respond, but he was already dodging a blast, which ended up striking the chair and blowing it to pieces — effectively disarming him. Weaponless, and effectively powerless, Danny was forced to play a cruel game of dodge ball. He had to jump, roll, spin and anything else he could think of under the unrelenting blasts.

He realized that this was beginning to look hopeless. He wasn't prepared to reveal his powers to Valerie unless it was absolutely necessary. It was becoming increasingly necessary, because every moment they delayed was a moment his father may be killed.

"Danny!" Sam shouted suddenly, distracting him and allowing a blast to connect, sending him sprawling. The guard started laughing as Danny tried to fight off the pain and get up. "Danny—she's out, go ghost!"

Danny's eyes widened and he looked to see that Valerie was indeed on the ground, evidently unconscious. Wasting no time to wonder how that had happened, Danny sprung to his feet, suddenly energized.

The guard, who'd been slowly advancing, suddenly froze. He pulled a walkie-talkie from his pocket suddenly, but before he'd gotten a chance to talk, Danny had already transformed and blasted it from his hand. The guard looked up in time to see another blast hit him in the face, and he quickly joined his comrade on the ground.

Danny floated over to Sam, who had just turned off the shield. "What happened?" He asked, looking down at the prone Valerie.

Sam laughed, "I knocked her out from behind — she never saw it coming," Danny looked at her, not surprised.

"That self-defense class you took comes in handy every once in a while, doesn't it?"

Sam smiled, "Only when I hang out with you," Danny allowed himself a small smile before he refocused on the task at hand.

"I'll fly you and Val out to the gates and then go back for my dad," he offered, bending over to pick up the girl.

"No!" Sam objected, stopping him, "There wouldn't be enough time — I'll get Val out of here, you get your dad and we'll meet outside,"

"Are you sure," Danny asked, knowing she was right and desperate to get to his dad, but just as concerned about the girls. Sam nodded, reactivating the shield. "Be careful," he warned, worriedly.

Sam looked up and smiled, "I'll see you on the other side," Danny smiled back before he set his face and turned towards the door. He flew through it quickly, and picked a direction at random, wondering if there escape was even possible.

* * *

Vlad slammed his hand on the table, "You cannot organize something like that by midnight!" He argued hotly, though secretly marveling at Maddie Fenton's determination. "Unfortunately, I feel the best course of action is to pay the ransom,"

Once the Manson's had found out that Sam was in the Ghost-Zone, they'd asked about a possible attack on said zone. Vlad simply couldn't allow this, so he was forced to try and keep his temper in check, while trying to appear as the voice of reason.

"But the ransom is just enough money to stop our invasion plans," Thomas said resignedly, not really comparing the money to his daughter, merely stating a fact. "Those damn ghosts know what they're doing,"

"We have no choice, though, Thomas," Alexandra said, resignedly. "We'll have to pay,"

"Or…" Maddie said thoughtfully, and Vlad inwardly groaned.

At half-past eleven, Vlad excused himself from their last minute scheming, and disappeared into one of the upstairs bathrooms. The original plan had entailed a duplicate going off to collect the money, but the recent arrangement Maddie and the Manson's had come up with made him decide to stay in one piece and do it himself. If they noticed his absence, he'd merely tell them that he'd gotten lost on the way.

From an upstairs window, Vlad saw Maddie and Thomas get into the Fenton Family Assault Vehicle and start off to the meeting place. Vlad smiled grimly, convincing himself that the ends justified the means, and transformed into his alter ego, before flying through the window and pursuing the R.V.

The meeting wasn't very far, and soon enough Vlad, invisible, touched down in the alleyway he'd designated. He wasn't usually one for cliché's, but frankly he hadn't given it much thought, and he'd only spotted it on his way over to drop the note.

Moments later, the Fenton R.V. pulled into the alley. He watched as Maddie jumped out and ran past him before she hid behind a dumpster in the alley's corner. Thomas stood at the other end, briefcase in shaking hand.

Vlad waited several minutes for affect, before he allowed himself to become visible, looking like evil incarnate in his ghost form. He pretended not to hear Maddie's muffled whisper, _"The Wisconsin ghost!"_

"Do you have my money?" He asked, floating an inch or so above the ground, also for affect; arms crossed and a bored expression on his face, as if he did this sort of thing all the time.

"Yes," Thomas said with surprising confidence. He tossed it to the ground at Vlad's feet carelessly. "Where's my daughter?"

Vlad ignored him and levitated the briefcase over to him, the briefcase that was now surrounded by a red aurora. Plasmius opened it as it came to him, and he quickly counted the money, satisfied that it was all there before it closed and reached for it.

He was just about to touch it when he felt the inevitable blast from behind, which sent him careening into the alley wall. The briefcase clattered to the ground, and Vlad spun to find his love fully armored in the Fenton Peeler. He smiled, knowing that she really stood no chance against him.

"You don't want to fight me," he warned, standing up and dusting himself off.

Maddie responded by firing again, but Vlad merely conjured a magenta shield in front of him, which easily absorbed the blast. He didn't even blink.

Yawning, he took the briefcase and prepared to leave. "What about my daughter?" Thomas said angrily, aiming a pathetic looking ectogun at him. Vlad chose to phase through Maddie's next attack before answering.

"You'll find out soon enough," he laughed, before he performed the brief mental task of creating a duplicate.

A foot to the left of him, two jet-black rings appeared, and moved apart, leaving behind an exact copy of Vlad Plasmius. Without pausing, the duplicate took the briefcase from the original Vlad's hands and flew off in the direction of Fentonworks.

Dodging one last shot, Vlad laughed once more as he took off back towards the Manson's.

* * *

Danny was getting worried. He'd checked every cell he found and he'd yet to find his father. He was human now, so all he did was stick his head through the doors and look around quickly before pulling it back. He'd seen a few familiar ghosts, Poindexter and the dragon princess to name a few, but most were ghosts he'd never seen before.

He turned a corner and saw an open door up ahead of him. Without thinking, he went ghost and flew flat-out towards the door. He zoomed through the door before his worried mind could warn him that it just may be a trap.

He froze in the near darkness, spotting his unconscious father strapped to a metallic, vertically positioned table, illuminated by the a lone spotlight from above — the only light in the room. Now sure it was a trap, Danny became invisible, just on the off chance it fooled them, and floated to his dad. He quickly made his father intangible and caught him before he fell; quietly saying a quick thank you to whatever deity had given him increased strength in ghost-mode.

Still invisible, Danny spun around and started towards the door, not quite sure why this was so easy. He had just crossed the threshold when the inevitable blast came from within the room, hitting him in the small of the back and throwing his dad from his arms.

Jack landed on the ground painfully, and abruptly woke up. Groggily, he saw Danny pick himself up and turn around in time to be hit in the chest, being thrown into his dad. "You!" Jack said, grabbing the ghost and throwing him off. "What are—"

"Don't worry about it now!" Danny interrupted, throwing up a shield to fill the doorway, just as half a dozen ectoblasts collided with it. "Follow this hallway until you find your son and his friends — they know the way out,"

"How do I know I can trust you?" Jack said, despite the fact that Danny had just saved his life.

"Run!" Danny shouted through clenched teeth, feeling his energy slowly drain. Jack hesitated just another moment before he sprinted down the hall. Once he rounded the corner, Danny let the green shield drop.

"Why'd you let him go?" Danny asked, stalling as he saw Walker float through the door, closely followed by a dozen of his guards.

"He doesn't mean anything to me," Walker said, "Neither do your friends, for that matter," Danny was confused, "Vlad just wanted them all out of the way for a while — you're all I care about, punk,"

Danny had slowly been backing up throughout Walker's monologue, and was now nearly at the corner. "Fire!" Walker suddenly commanded, noticing Danny's retreat.

Danny spun around quickly and threw himself around the corner just as the green blasts hit the wall. He stood up and faced the end of the hall that he knew they'd come around. He took a deep breath, and just as enough of the guards made it around the corner and stopped, confused that he wasn't running, he screamed.

But not a normal scream — his Ghostly-Wail — and it finally worked.

Walker and his dozen guards were caught completely by surprise, and the first waves of the wail drove them back, into and then through the wall behind them. Danny kept it up for nearly ten seconds before both the wall and the ceiling collapsed on them.

Exhausted, he quickly stopped the attack and tried to catch his breath. He was getting better at it, he thought, though he hadn't held it as long as he had previously.

Once he was satisfied that Walker wasn't going anywhere for a while, and he'd successfully caught his breath, he spun around and flew back towards his dad, Valerie, and Sam.


	9. Freedom

-Just one more chapter after this, but I'm in the middle of Chapter 3 of the sequel, which should be posted sometime in March

Disclaimer: I don't own anything

**The Master Plan**

_Uric Igi Shelps_

**Chapter 9**

Freedom?

The Plasmius duplicate flew through the Ghost-Zone with all the confidence of the original. He knew exactly where he was going, and though there had been a few bumps in the road, the plan was still moving along better than expected.

Right when he expected it to, the floating jungle that was his destination appeared in the distance. Speeding up, Plasmius reached Skulker's lair moments later, using his perfected ghost-sense to guide him straight to his employee.

He dropped down through the jungle canopy and reflexively became intangible rather than dodge the dense trees and branches. The dense underbrush swept by and through him, and more than a few ghostly predators glanced at him as he flew by, but fortunately for them, he was gone an instant later.

Finally, a glowing green, wooden cabin came into view. Though it was only a cabin in the barest sense of the word; being made of wood and in a forest. It was much larger then your proto-typical cabin, it was about the size of a small school. There were two stories, and at the very center, above the front, double wooden doors, there was a long, wrought iron railing, enclosing what Vlad assumed to be a balcony.

Plasmius stopped and regained tangibility before the front door. Cursing Skulker for his ghost-proof lair, Plasmius raised one arm and brought it down forcefully. After a few moments, the doors disappeared entirely, and Vlad took the hint.

Floating through the door, he found himself in a familiar hallway, which he knew led into Skulker's personal weapon's vault.

Skulker had a tendency to show off when he had guests. The hallway was lit by strategically placed, green-flamed torches, which, coupled with the Ghost-Zone's natural cold, had the effect of making the traveler feel as if he were underground.

Eventually, the hallway emptied into the large, ecto-steel reinforced room where the Ghost-Zone's greatest hunter housed his weaponry. Skulker himself sat at an out of place looking wooden stool, fiddling with his latest invention. "What do you want?" The hunter asked without turning around.

"Another distraction," Plasmius said simply and immediately, "Young Daniel and his friends are likely to escape Walker's prison anytime now — you need to be there,"

Skulker gave a weary sigh and turned from his work. "Why would I do that — I wanted to get this Ghost-Shield disrupter done tonight,"

Vlad tossed the briefcase into Skulker's surprised hands. The confused machine fiddled with the handle for a moment before he finally just ripped the top off, causing the money to pile up on the floor at his feet.

Skulker tossed the broken briefcase away and eyed the money, arching an eyebrow before looking back to Vlad, nonplussed. "What do I need money for? I'm a ghost!"

Vlad smiled, "The next time young Daniel dismantles that armor of yours — you'll need the money,"

Skulker frowned, and raised a contemplative mechanical arm , "Fine," Skulker said using a vacuum type device in his arm to suck up the money.

"Excellent," Plasmius said succinctly before he disappeared in a magenta flash.

* * *

Maddie, Vlad, and the Mansons walked through the front door to Fentonworks despondently. That Wisconsin ghost had beaten them easily, and he'd gotten away without leaving any clues to Danny or Sam's whereabouts.

Left with no other options, they'd decided to bring the fight to the Ghost-Zone — and this time they weren't coming back without rescuing Danny, Sam and Jack.

They traipsed down to the lab in silence, each — with the exception of Vlad—worried about their family. Once Samantha was helped down the long staircase, they walked towards the portal, planning to use the Specter Speeder once again.

"Where is it?" Maddie asked suddenly in alarm, looking from the designated parking spot to the open, spiraling vortex of ectoplasm that was the Ghost-Portal. "And where are Jazz and Tucker?"

"Maddie," Vlad called out, restraining from smiling in joy at his good fortune— "you should see this," he held out a hastily written note, which Maddie quickly snatched.

"Darn it Jazz!" She shouted in frustration a moment later, crumbling the loose leaf and hurling it into the open portal. "They took the Speeder and went after Danny!" She nearly shouted, turning to the Mansons in explanation.

"I think it's time to inform the police," Vlad said quickly, making for the stairs.

"Why don't we just call them?" Thomas asked, seeing Vlad's hurried pace. Vlad stopped and spun.

"Because they will take Vlad Masters seriously," was all he said, sprinting up the stairs and quickly becoming Plasmius in a flash of dark light. He doubled back right away, and flew through the portal, invisibly, intent on joining his duplicate.

* * *

Sam was starting to regret knocking Valerie out.

Not that she felt sorry for the girl who routinely made Danny's life hell. No, not at all — it was just getting extremely tiring to continue to drag her prone form towards the exit. She'd turned the Mini-Shield off to save the energy, but she was starting to wonder if her own energy was worth more then the battery power of the device.

She'd parted ways with Danny nearly ten minutes ago, but she'd just heard what was unmistakably his Ghostly-Wail a surprisingly short time later.

She wasn't sure how she felt about that — on one hand, it meant that Danny was still fighting, which was obviously good. But on the other hand, it meant he was desperate enough to use it — which couldn't be a good thing.

Sam stopped as she reached a corner, and with one more heave, she sat Valerie up against the wall next to her as she leaned back against the cold surface, trying to catch her breath.

She was just beginning to feel semi-comfortable again when a groan announced Valerie's return to consciousness.

Valerie's eyes fluttered open slowly, and it took them a few seconds to adjust. Once they did, and she was focused on Sam's face, she put a hand to her head and groaned again.

"What happened?" She asked, adjusting her position so that she was sitting more comfortably.

"Uh — you got hit with an ecto — I mean a ghost-ray in the cell," Sam said, playing dumb, "Then that Phantom came and fought off Walker,"

"Where's Danny?" Valerie asked after a moment of searching.

"Oh—" Sam said, thinking, "He went to look for a way out—yeah he should be back soon," she said with more confidence.

"You let him go off alone — in this place?" Valerie asked throwing her arms in the air incredulously. "What kind of a friend are you?"

Sam crossed her arms and glared at the arrogant girl, "What should I have done?" She asked, "Gone with him and left you here alone — defenseless because you're the expert ghost-hunter who got caught with her back turned?" Sam knew that was low, considering she'd been the one to attack Val, but at the moment, she didn't care.

Valerie crossed her arms and returned Sam's glare, but never got a chance to retort , because at that moment, a shout coming from the hallway they'd just left interrupted them.

"Sam!" Jack Fenton shouted as he sprinted closer, "Valerie!" The big man skidded to a halt in front of the two girls, as Sam inwardly breathed a sigh of relief. If Danny's dad was okay—then surely Danny would appear any minute. "Where's Danny?" Jack asked, looking around.

"He's looking for a way out," Valerie said with a glance back to Sam — who merely glared in return.

"That a boy," Mr. Fenton said with pride, oblivious to the feud, as he grabbed both girls by their collars and pulled them to their feet. "Let's get going," he said, starting around the corner, as a reluctant Valerie and Sam followed.

"Shouldn't we wait for Danny?" Valerie asked, glancing back at where they'd been. "He won't know where to find us,"

"Nonsense," Jack said at once, "A Fenton always has a back up plan—Danny'll find us,"

Valerie glanced at Sam, who decided to forgo the glare and merely shrugged, hopelessly. "Um—Mr. Fenton?" She asked, hoping to sound nonchalant, "How did you get away from the ghosts?"

Mr. Fenton stopped at a "T" crossing and looked both ways before he picked one, seemingly at random and started down the hall. If Sam hadn't known he was going in the right direction, she wouldn't have known what to do. "Are you kidding?" He asked incredulously, "No ghosts can hold Jack Fenton for long!"

He glanced back, and meeting Sam's raised eyebrows added quietly, "And that ghost-kid Phantom helped out," next to her, Sam heard Valerie groan in annoyance.

"He fought off all of those ghosts by himself?" Sam asked cautiously, hoping that she didn't sound too nervous. At the edge of her field of vision, she saw Valerie give her a questioning look. Sam ignored it.

"How should I know," Jack said, and Sam suddenly had that sinking feeling, "He was still fighting them off when he told me to leave," he shrugged, and resumed his silence.

Sam had just thought up an excuse to go back and look for Danny when Mr. Fenton stopped suddenly, making both Sam and Valerie collide with him and fall to the ground. "Here we go!" He said, seeming not to notice the girls on the ground. He turned around and looked at them with some surprise before he hefted them up again and pushed them through what Sam recognized as the front gates.

Jack kept a hand on each of their shoulders, guiding them past the gates and out onto the edge of the floating island that comprised the prison grounds. Jack guided them to the edge of the island and looked in the direction of the Fenton Portal, which Sam knew to be just out of sight in the green haze that comprised the Ghost-Zone's atmosphere.

"Hello, humans," a voice spoke from behind them. All three spun around, and met Skulker's sneering face a mere five feet away — his right arm raised, cannon armed and glowing its characteristic blue. "No whelp?" Skulker asked rhetorically, looking around cautiously, he shrugged his massive metallic shoulders indifferently, "Goodbye then,"

He smiled cruelly, and fired. The report was incredibly loud, and Sam closed her eyes, resigned to being blasted off the edge and falling to the bottom of the Ghost-Zone. She had just begun to wonder what the bottom of the Ghost-Zone was like when another, louder sound forced her to open her eyes.

Directly in front of her was a ten-foot high translucent green wall. The shield was still vibrating madly from the impact, and Sam had just enough time to see Skulker's annoyed expression before Danny's back blocked him from view. The shield disappeared, and Sam heard Valerie mutter something under her breath as Mr. Fenton whooped with joy.

The one thing that worried her was the fact that she could already hear Danny panting from exertion, and she knew he couldn't have much energy left after his using his wail.

How long could he last?

* * *

Across the Ghost-Zone, on the other side of the Fenton Portal and through the seemingly endless vacancy, Pariah Dark's castle stood as haughtily as ever. The palace had evidently been restored since the rest of the ghosts sealed the King inside his sarcophagus, as well as sending the entire town of Amity Park back from the Ghost-Zone.

The castle had remained untouched since; until today.

Two dozen of Walker's most trusted and powerful guards swooped into the invitingly open doorway. The leader, a ghost by the name of Bullet paused on the threshold and looked around. After another moment's hesitation, he raised his hand, and signaled the rest of his guards to follow.

They made their way through the extravagantly decorated halls, following the directions their employer had provided. Finally, they burst through a pair of excessively decorated doors and ahead of them, bathed in the unnatural light of the Ghost-Zone sat the same sarcophagus.

"There he is," Bullet said, seemingly indifferent as he led the way up to the tomb. As they had planned, the guards encircled the standing coffin. Nodding towards each other, each guard held up a long, thin, cylindrical object not unlike the Jack-A-Nine-Tails. Though the color scheme was different, these favoring red shades, the weapons looked nearly identical otherwise.

Bullet glanced behind him and nodded once again, extracting a long, old fashioned key, which he expertly put into the a hole in the skull on the tomb's lid, and turned. There was a satisfyingly loud lurch from within, and the guards moved closer still to the coffin digging their fingers into a grove along the side.

Together, they all lifted the lid from the coffin with surprising ease, and quickly tossed it up and over their collective heads, where it clattered to the ground behind them. Immediately, they all raised their weapons and fired them into the darkness of the tomb.

Elastic looking ropes shot from the tips and disappeared into the darkness. A moment later, they started to glow a bright red, illuminating a still groggy, though waking Pariah Dark. "What is this?" He asked, struggling against the dozen ecto-reinforced binds.

With another silent signal, each ghost pressed a button on the side, and the already bright lines pulsed with energy. A split second later, Pariah Dark screamed in obvious agony, a sound that seemed incredibly unlikely to come from the Ghost-Zone's greatest king. The ghosts pressed the buttons again a moment later, leaving the once almighty ghost-king slumped up against the back of his tomb, panting from exertion.

"That's better," Bullet said, striding forward and grabbing the king's gloved hand.

Pariah, still slightly dazed, took a moment to realize what was going on. "No!" He suddenly yelled, ripping his massive hand from the ghost's grasp. Bullet merely sighed and rolled his eyes as another blast from his men sent Dark into a series of convulsions and more screams.

This time, Pariah was dazed enough so that he didn't even seem to notice when Bullet slipped the ring off his finger and put it into an inside pocket. Satisfied, Bullet waved a hand — signaling his men to cease their attack.

He held out his hand, and a moment later, yet another weapon was dropped into it. This one looked much more like a weapon than other devices had.

For starters, it was shaped like a revolver, and though it looked more state of the art, one difference was the twin barrels, each aiming in two directions. "This is the Plasmius Terminus," Bullet said, eyeing the contraption almost lovingly. He flipped a small switch on the side and aimed it at the ghost-king's forehead. "The new king, Lord Vlad Plasmius, thanks you for the ring,"

The king almost had a chance to look shocked before the trigger was pulled.

* * *

Danny hit the ground again with a groan. "Give it up, whelp," Skulker said, standing over him, sneering. "You may have the upper hand in your world — but the Ghost-Zone is my domain!"

Danny pushed himself up and glanced at his friends again. They were standing in a close circle, talking quietly, though Danny noticed the worried glances Sam kept shooting his way when she thought no one was looking.

WHAM!

In his distraction, Skulker blasted him again, sending him tumbling into the prison wall, causing several pieces of rock and stone to collapse on him. Growling in frustration, Danny launched himself back to Skulker, flying full-speed.

As he wound up for an uppercut, Skulker became intangible and Danny shot right through him. By the time Danny had regained his bearings Skulker blasted him back into the ground again. Cursing, Danny sat up on his knees and changed tactics.

Danny cupped both hands in front of him and formed the beginnings of an ectoblast. Once the sphere of energy was completed in his hands, he had it explode outward — a continuous blast of green energy.

Skulker had been advancing on the downed halfa when the blast struck him clean in the jaw. The upward angle, combined with the force of the blast sent Skulker careening crazily up into the air.

Wasting no time, Danny shot into the air after him — and before Skulker could recover, Danny drew back and punched him across the face — this time sending the hunter back towards the ground, where he blasted clear through one of the prison walls. A moment later the wall collapsed on top of him in a shower of dust and stone.

Danny touched down once again and watched the crash zone with more then some trepidation, as the pile of rubble started to shake a moment later. With an angry bellow, the rubble blasted away from Skulker in all directions.

With a quick mental command — Danny simultaneously became intangible and formed a shield in front of his friends to block the rain of shrapnel. A moment later he dropped the shield and phased back to normal.

"It will take much more than that to defeat me, whelp," Skulker said arrogantly as one of his cannons emerged from a compartment on his arm. In the blink of an eye, he shot of three quick blasts.

Danny dodged the first and second shots, and went intangible in the face of the third. SLAM!

The blast hit him anyway and sent Danny rolling head over heels a good ten feet from where he'd stood. _Note to self,_ Danny thought, _next time; dodge_. He had just enough time to disappear through the ground before Skulker's next blast made an incredibly large crater where he'd been.

Skulker tensed, looking around for any signs of the ghost-boy. A small, pair of optical lenses sprung from his shoulder and positioned themselves in front of the hunter's eyes. He made an interested sound a split-second before Danny shot through the ground — and found himself being held tightly by the throat.

The sudden — unexpected lack of air kept Danny from gathering enough concentration to do much of anything. "Nice try, ghost-child," Skulker said as he tossed the boy into a wall, and fired his cannon once again.

Danny saw it coming, and dodged the blast — which meant that the wall behind him took the full force. It collapsed forward onto him—and he disappeared in a cloud of ecto-rubble and dust.

"Danny!" Sam shouted before she could stop herself.

"Where?" Jack asked, as he and Valerie began looking around frantically.

Sam was too busy watching Skulker move with agonizing leisure towards the pile of rubble, which didn't appear to be moving. She was just about to jump away from Val and Jack when a shout distracted her. She spun around and saw the Specter Speeder coasting to a stop feet away.

The door opened, reveling a smiling Tucker and Jazz in the driver's seat. "You need a lift?" Tucker offered, as the three escapees ran towards their ride, Sam momentarily forgetting Danny's questionable peril.

Valerie wasted no time in hopping inside, and Jack pushed Sam in next before he spun around.

"Dad?" Jazz asked curiously from the cockpit. "What's wrong?"

Mr. Fenton looked back at his daughter with fire in his eyes. "I'm not going anywhere without Danny!" He shouted, taking one of the weapons mounted on the inside of the speeder and cocking it. "You kids go on without me,"

Sam, Tucker and Jazz exchanged fearful looks before they jumped off after him. "Wait, Mr. Fenton," Tucker shouted running to catch up. But the big man had already stopped—and it was obvious as to why.

Sam had been wondering what Skulker had been doing during their brief rendezvous, and when she saw him, she gasped audibly.

Skulker had evidently retrieved a barely conscious Danny from the rubble. His hazmat suit was torn in too many places to count, with greenish blood coating the areas around many of the tears. His face sported an innumerable amount of cuts and scrapes as well, and his whole body was hung limply in Skulker's grasp by the collar of his suit.

The Ghost-Zone's greatest hunter held Danny at arm's length and his other arm was cocked and ready, with an ectoplasmic blade to the young ghost-child's throat.

Sam, Tucker and Jazz all froze, completely clueless as to what they could do to help, while Jack seemed to be having something of an inner dilemma.

After what looked like a tough decision — where a lot of different emotions played across the man's face — Jack lifted the ectogun and expertly blasted Skulker away, forcing him to drop Danny.

Both Skulker and Danny picked themselves up, and Danny looked at his father in surprise for a moment. Then he sighed heavily, and shot a thin ectoblast from his finger, which struck the surprised Jack in the head, knocking him out.

Jazz looked at her brother in surprise and shock. "What was—"

"Now you can leave!" Danny interrupted shortly, turning back to the recovered Skulker.

"What about you?" Sam asked, even as they moved to begin to drag Mr. Fenton back towards the speeder.

Danny couldn't answer, as he had to concentrate on maintaining the ectoplasmic barrier he had just erected to protect his friends as they escaped. Skulker had finally realized what was going on. "Get out of here!" He yelled furiously through clenched teeth and draining energy.

Skulker continued to barrage the wall mercilessly with shot after shot. At first he started with a relatively small gun attached to his wrist. But as his frustration grew he continued to pull out increasingly larger weapons. He now sported an overlarge cannon that had emerged from somewhere on his back.

Each shot resulted in a trembling and slightly more transparent shield as Danny continuously groaned.

After what seemed to Danny like an eternity, the four teens finally managed to get Jack onto the vehicle. Danny met Jazz's worried look with a determined one of his own, and Jazz soon turned the speeder around and blasted back in the direction of Fentonworks.

Dropping the shield, Danny didn't even attempt to dodge Skulker's rage driven cannon blast. He was sent bouncing painfully across the ground before he eventually stopped, face down on the barren ghost-zone rock.

"I will have your head for this, ghost-child!" Skulker screamed at him, as he picked Danny up and slammed him face first into the ground again. "Those humans were mine to kill!" Skulker lifted him back out of the ground, "You. Will. Pay!" He accentuated each word by slamming Danny into the rock again and again.

He threw him away in frustration and when he landed, Danny didn't get up. "Is that all you've got, whelp?" Skulker asked, seemingly calmer. "They said you've grown stronger—but look at you know," he mocked, "bleeding, bruised and defeated, the fact that you're half-ghost just makes you weaker!"

Skulker laughed and raised an eyebrow as Danny's body started to tremble and the half-ghost slowly, painfully pushed himself up, and lifted his head, meeting Skulker's glare. "I grow weary of your continuous existence," Skulker said a moment later, as he raised his arm and a powerful looking bazooka emerged. "I told you in our first encounter that your pelt will adorn my wall—and do that it shall,"

As the cannon powered up with a high-pitched whirring, Danny gave his hunter one last, small smile before his face was blinded in a bright light and his scream obscured by the report.

But Skulker's laugh echoed throughout the Ghost-Zone, and in the cockpit of the Specter Speeder, Sam, Tucker, Jazz and Valerie all shuddered.


End file.
